This book addresses groundwater governance, a subject internationally recognized as crucial and topical for enhancing and safeguarding the benefits of groundwater and groundwater-dependent ecosystems to humanity, while ensuring water and food security under global change.

The multiple and complex dimensions of groundwater governance are captured in 28 chapters, written by a team of leading experts from different parts of the world and with a variety of relevant professional backgrounds. The book aims to describe the state-of-the-art and latest developments regarding each of the themes addressed, paying attention to the wide variation of conditions observed around the globe.

The book consists of four parts. The first part sets the stage by defining groundwater governance, exploring its emergence and evolution, framing it through a socio-ecological lens and describing groundwater policy and planning approaches. The second part discusses selected key aspects of groundwater governance. The third part zooms in on the increasingly important linkages between groundwater and other resources or sectors, and between local groundwater systems and phenomena or actions at the international or even global level. The fourth part, finally, presents a number of interesting case studies that illustrate contemporary practice in groundwater governance.

In one volume, this highly accessible text not only familiarizes water professionals, decision-makers and local stakeholders with groundwater governance, but also provides them with ideas and inspiration for improving groundwater governance in their own environment.

Karen G. Villholth has more than 25 years of experience in groundwater resources assessment and management. She deals with research, policy advice, and capacity development related to groundwater irrigation for smallholders, transboundary aquifers, groundwater resources assessment and modelling, climate change and groundwater, adaptation through underground solutions, role of depleting aquifers in global food production, groundwater and eco-system services, and groundwater management and governance for institutions at various levels, from local to global. She engages with multidisciplinary teams and stakeholders in co-developing tools, approaches, and policies to a more sustainable use of groundwater for livelihoods, food security, and environmental integrity. Karen is a Principal Researcher and a Research Group Leader at IWMI, International Water Management Institute at the Southern Africa regional office. She is leading the global IWMI-led partnership initiative on Groundwater Solutions for Policy and Practice (GRIPP). Karen holds a PhD in Groundwater Assessment and a MSc in Chemical Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark and a MSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Washington. She previously worked for DHI-Water and Environment and the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. She is co-author of three books related to groundwater and more than 50 peer-reviewed journal papers.

Elena López Gunn is the Founder and Director of ICATALIST and a Cheney Fellow at University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. Elena finished her PhD at King's College, London. She also holds a Masters from the University of Cambridge. She was an Associate Professor at IE Business school and a Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics as Alcoa Research Fellow. Professionally, Elena has collaborated with a number of organizations including UNESCO, FAO, UNDP, EU DG Research and Innovation, universities (Spanish and Dutch) and river basin agencies, the England and Wales Environment Agency, as well as the private sector like Repsol, and NGOs like Transparency International-Spanish Chapter. She has published on a range of topics mainly related to water security, social innovation, collaborative decision making, water governance, evaluation of public policy, knowledge management and transfer. Her current main focus is climate change adaptation, DRR and socio-ecological systems. She has recently worked as Technical Expert for the International Atomic Agency on projects related to groundwater governance and capacity building. Elena lives in Madrid with her husband, Dave, and her three fabulous children.

Kirstin I. Conti has 10 years experience in the environmental and water policy sectors. As a child, Kirstin's favorite gardening project was creating a compost bin - placing worms in a compost box and feeding them produce scraps. Years later her love for nature led her to her major in Earth Systems at Stanford University, which is an interdisciplinary program focused on environmental problem solving. At that time, her experiences in the classroom and conducting field research in in the Southern Africa region sparked her passionate for a career in water management. Her professional experiences revealed the complexity of managing shared water resources. As an environmental consultant in San Francisco, she witnessed stakeholder conflicts prevent the effective management of California's water. She completed a Masters of Laws at University of Dundee and her doctoral research at the University of Amsterdam and the International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC). Her focus is improving groundwater governance and conflict prevention mechanisms for the purpose of ensuring that our most abundant fresh water resource, groundwater, is managed sustainably, equitably, and cooperatively.

Alberto Garrido is Spanish Professor of Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics and Vice-Rector of Quality and Efficiency at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM). Has a Bachelor Degree and MSc in Agricultural Engineering; a Masters in Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics from the University of California, Davis (1992) and a Doctoral Degree in Agricultural Economics from the UPM (1995). Has supervised 17 Doctoral Dissertations, published 195 references, of which 70 are academic articles and 15 books. Has 25 years of experience in leading research projects and grants. His research focuses on agricultural risks and insurance, natural resource economics and policy and water policy. Has consulted for the main international organisations (FAO, BID, The World Bank, IFAD), several national governments of Europe, Asia and America, and numerous private companies and foundations. He has coordinated 55 research projects, 8 of which with international consortia. Since 1996, he is a member of the Advisory Board of the Rosenberg Forum of International Policy.

Jac van der Gun is a Dutch groundwater hydrologist and water resources specialist (MSc, Wageningen University). He has been employed successively by a Dutch water supply company (WMG, Velp), UN-OTC (New York) and the R&D organisation TNO (Delft/Utrecht). His professional career spans almost half a century and has focused on (1) water resources exploration and assessment (including significant fieldwork); (2) hydrogeological mapping; (3) water resources planning and manage¬ment; and (4) training, capacity building and institutional development. He has been involved actively in the Groundwater Reconnaissance of The Netherlands (entrusted with the overall responsibility for this programme). His long-term assignments abroad include positions as a resident hydrologist in Bolivia and as a resident water resources assessment project manager in Yemen and Paraguay. In addition, he carried out numerous short missions in Asia, Latin America, Africa and Europe for various international and national organisations, providing scientific-technical input, supervising projects, and formulating or evaluating projects and programmes. He has also lectured at UNESCO-IHE on groundwater for more than thirty years. In 2003 he became the founding director of the International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC) and since then he is mainly active in groundwater-related projects of international organisations (e.g. the Groundwater Governance Project).