Foreword

This book is about the role and importance of groundwater in our Planet’s water cycle and is the flagship product of the GW-Project. Many books have been published in the past decade drawing attention to the looming global water crisis. Although many are focused on the immense importance of freshwater for humanity and the multitude of water problems we are facing, none were written by water science experts to cover the groundwater part of our water cycle for a broad readership as comprehensively as this book. This book, titled “Groundwater in Our Water Cycle: Getting to Know Earth’s Most Important Fresh Water Source” makes “hidden” groundwater come to life for the reader.

This book was initiated by Eileen Poeter, who reached out to each of the co-authors, progressively, as more and more expertise was needed to cover the expanding scope. The end result is a book prepared by senior, globally recognized, experts with specialties including field investigation, analysis and modeling of groundwater flow, geochemistry and pollution. The result is a collaborative effort of the type that the GW-Project strives to encourage in the quest to synthesize knowledge and achieve simplicity on the other side of complexity.

The authors are all on the Steering Committee of the GW-Project. While preparing the book, they received advice from experts on groundwater governance among other topics. The book was subjected to comprehensive peer review. Consequently, the material in this book represents the type of interdisciplinary collaborations that the world urgently needs to transfer groundwater knowledge and raise groundwater consciousness in support of better groundwater management and protection.

John Cherry, The GW-Project Leader
Guelph, Ontario, Canada, August 2020