Applications of Hydrogeology - Hydrogeology: Objectives, Methods, Applications - page 14

before the execution of projects likely to alter water resources (landfi lls,
dumping of toxic substances, storage of dangerous materials) and in the
defi nition of protection zones intended to increase the safety of drinking
water sources.
The increasing demands on groundwater resources and the excessive
pumping in certain aquifers are not always appropriate given the recharge
rates of those aquifers, and can lead to the impoverishment of the available
resources. The need for integrated management of aquifers, both from
a qualitative and quantitative perspective, is becoming more and more
pressing. This vision has become more widespread over the last few
decades, and benefi ted greatly from the January 3rd, 1992 Law on Water
in France and its decrees. This decrees allow for groundwater to be taken
into account in a global development, protection, and management process,
also integrating the entirety of the human and natural environment, and
increasing the role of the hydrogeologist.
4 HYDROGEOLOGY'S PLACE AND ITS APPLICATIONS
In today's society, the hydrogeologist occupies a more and more important
place in the politics of land development, particularly in regions with a
high population density and/or which are home to intensive agricultural
or industrial development.
The hydrogeologist intervenes in a number of areas of public life:
• teaching and research within educational institutions (CNRS, INRA,
Ministries);
• research on, study of, protection of, and management of groundwater
resources;
• examination of the infl uence of groundwater on large-scale construction
and on civil engineering projects, as well as of the impact of those
projects on the hydrogeologic environment;
• analysis of the role of water in mass wasting (rockslides, landslides,
cave-ins) and prediction of critical fl ooding events.
The hydrogeologist is also more and more frequently integrated into
interdisciplinary teams (administrations, elected offi cials, city planners,
landscapers, hydrologists, economists), either to help with diagnostic,
management, or planning programs, or to help with preliminary studies
on the scale of a region, basin, group of communities, community, or even
one large structural project.