Definition and History of Hydrogeology - Hydrogeology: Objectives, Methods, Applications - page 7

1.2.5 The birth of hydrogeology
The basic concepts of infi ltration having been already laid down, the
mechanisms governing water once it reached the surface of the soil were
refi ned and clarifi ed by La Métherie (1791).
In 1856, Darcy, an engineer of the Ponts et Chaussées (Bridges and
Roads administration) in charge of the city of Dijon's water supply, defi ned
the mathematical law which, linking the permeability of a medium and the
hydraulic gradient, governs the fl ow of groundwater (see chap. A6.2). That
law's formulation marked the beginning of modern hydrogeology. The
great problems in the fi eld at the end of the 19th century were mainly tied
to well-digging and to the exploitation of alluvial aquifers. Studies on those
topics were therefore numerous. They were primarily concerned with the
relationship between geology and groundwater, the defi nition of hydraulic
laws below ground, and the study of water chemistry.
During this same time period, in Camprieu (Gard), Edouard Alfred
Martel laid the foundations of speleology, while following the underground
path of the Ruisseau du Bonheur to the Bramabiau spring. But such activity,
deemed too athletic, was generally looked down upon by university
scholars, and it was only around 1960 that the creation of the Moulis
laboratory by Philippe Renault and Félix Trombe led to the birth, in France,
of karst hydrogeology, a branch of hydrogeology to which an important
section of this text will be devoted.
The 20th century saw the height of often-pharaonic projects, such as
giant dams on the planet's great rivers, which modifi ed the hydrogeology
of entire regions, or the Great Man-Made River (Libya, see chap. E3). These
great construction projects were sometimes stricken by tragedy, such as
the catastrophe at Malpasset (see chap. D4), which served as an example
of hydrogeology's critical role in civil engineering.
The end of the 20th century was marked by the appearance of numerical
modelling. Thanks to technological progress, a computer using Darcy's
Law and its derivatives, and collecting data acquired with ever-more-
sophisticated instruments, can simulate aquifer functioning and serve as
and aid to aquifer management. But this was also the century of pollution,
and the nitrate contamination in the aquifers of Brittany and Normandy
was, alas, only the fi rst of a multitude of qualititative problems that will
only increase in the future.