President’s Page: Advances in the use of geophysics in groundwater exploration

In developing countries, and many developed ones, there is heavy reliance on groundwater as a primary source of drinking water supply and for both agricultural and industrial supplies. The reliance on groundwater is such that it is necessary to ensure that there are significant quantities of water and that the water is of a high quality. It is thus necessary to determine how to provide an adequate supply of groundwater. Detailed subsurface information is therefore necessary for the location of groundwater resources to enable us determine groundwater availability and sustainability for exploitation. It is here that geophysical techniques are called into play.