Managing underground water resources and reserves with regard to the life, health and integrity of ecosystems, uses, ownership status and user rights, legal systems, transboundary issues, pollution and overdraft.
The present wellbeing of most industrialized countries and the hopes for a brighter future in the less-developed countries depend to a significant extent on the availability of sufficient quantities of ground water of adequate quality. With the continuing and increasing presence of contaminants in major surface-water resources such as the Rhine, Danube and Great Lakes of North America, with the discovery of toxic contaminants in numerous subsurface waste-disposal sites in the industrialized nations, and with the pollution of aquifers underlying cities in the less-developed countries, there is a clear need for effective ground-water quality management throughout the world.