Due to technical, social, and economic limitations, integrated groundwater management presents a significant challenge in developing countries. The significance of this issue becomes even more pronounced in groundwater management, as this resource is often overlooked and undervalued by decision-makers due to its status as a “hidden resource,” despite the fact that it provides multiple ecosystem services. This study aims to establish the technical hydrogeological foundation in rural basins of central Bolivia through alternative, simplified, and cost-effective methods and tools.

Groundwater is a hidden resource, so as part of making it more visible, geophysical methods can be very useful in inferring the delineation of aquifers and/or more productive zones to target in fractured rock environments. The most commonly used techniques to assist groundwater studies or exploration are still resistivity profiles or sections known as ERT or electrical resistivity tomography and vertical electrical soundings or VES. One of the limiting factors with this technique is the scale of what surveys can be conducted, resulting in, at best, some kilometers per day.

The basis of a hydrogeological conceptual model is the comprehensive characterisation of the groundwater system. This ranges from discrete hydraulic feature analysis to local-scale testing to integrated regional-scale aquifer system conceptualisation. Interdisciplinary data integration is critical to each level of characterisation to gain a realistic, yet simplified representation of the hydrogeological system based on various data sources.

Groundwater is the most important source of potable water in rural areas of Acholiland, a sub-region of northern Uganda. Installation of handpumps has been the focus of local government and international aid to provide safe drinking water in Uganda. However, non-functional handpumps are one reason for the abandonment of groundwater resources. For handpumps to be sustainable for years, appropriate siting and construction is required, as well as monitoring.

The Lower Berg River Aquifer System, situated in the Western Cape province of South Africa, is important to the towns that overlay it, as they rely on the aquifer for water supply, which supplements industrial development and residential growth. This aquifer system is important because surface water resources in the area are finite and fully allocated. Despite studies on the Lower Berg River Aquifer System since 1976, knowledge of the geological layers, recharge and discharge areas, and groundwater flow paths remain limited.

The Sagole hot spring is located in the northern Limpopo Province of South Africa. Investigations were carried out in order to investigate the groundwater aquifer and water chemistry. Results were envisaged to the understanding of the geothermal potential of the area. Regional scale airborne magnetic data and geology were used for identifying structures and lithological boundaries that are associated with thermal groundwater aquifers.

A fault system may form preferential flow paths for groundwater along fault planes. In an industrial and mining environment, such geological structures pose a geohydrological challenge when delineating and managing groundwater pollution. A geophysical investigation, employing electric resistivity tomography (ERT) and electromagnetics (EM), was conducted along a section of a graben system to improve the geological understanding, define groundwater flow paths and pollution distribution in a mining and industrial setting.

Water is integral to our economy, the health of our environment, and our survival as a species. Much of this water is accessed from surface sources, mostly rivers, which are now under increased threat due to over use and the resulting hydro-political forces. Yet, groundwater exists as a viable option in many countries facing these mounting challenges. Knowledge of our deeper groundwater systems, although increasing, is still quite limited due to our propensity to focus efforts in the lower cost, lower risk, near- surface environment.

Enslin,S; Webb, SJ