Foreword

As a hydrogeologic system, karst has great importance to humanity because it makes up about 10 percent of the earth’s land surface and provides water for 10 percent of the global population. This book is about the Edwards Aquifer in Texas, United States of America, which is one of the world’s important aquifers. It supplies water to two million people, and is an exceptional example of a hydrogeologically complex aquifer with multiple land uses that is managed by several cooperating organizations who are challenged to balance diverse water uses that pose the threat of excessive pumping and pollution. Because of the great value of the water and land, this aquifer system has been subjected to intensive investigation and monitoring for more than a century. It is an example of governance that has resulted in a reasonably stable groundwater resource with regard to both quantity and quality.

This book covers nearly all of the topics that make up modern hydrogeology in the context of the Edwards Aquifer including groundwater recharge, velocity, discharge, residence time, hydrochemistry, contamination and numerical modeling. Discussion of these topics is intertwined to explain how the Edwards Aquifer functions as a hydrogeologic system. Karst aquifers are commonly the host for ecological activity and a unique characteristic of the Edwards Aquifer is the great variety of organisms that live in the aquifer or are directly dependent upon flow from its springs.

The Groundwater Project book, “Introduction to Karst” by Kuniansky and others (2022) is good background reading for this book.

Dr. Jack Sharp is the Emeritus Carlton Professor of Geology at The University of Texas located on the Edwards Aquifer where he has been involved in matters concerning the Edwards Aquifer for many decades. Dr. Ronald Green is a senior scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, which is also on the Edwards Aquifer where he has spent most of his career involved in karst science.

John Cherry, The Groundwater Project Leader
Guelph, Ontario, Canada, August 2022