This book comprises the selected papers from the 1st Springer Conference of the Arabian Journal of Geosciences (CAJG-1), Tunisia 2018. The volume is of interest to all researchers and practitioners in the fields of Hydrology, Hydrogeology, Hydrochemistry, Water Resources and Hydrologic Engineering.

Water is a dynamic, finite, and vulnerable but resilient natural resource to be protected in an environmentally sustainable manner. Water systems in different frameworks requires a comprehensive understanding of climatology, geology, hydrogeology, hydrochemistry, hydrodynamics, and surface hydrology. In addition, it is highlighted the role of the variability and climate change in water systems. Furthermore, water has a vital significance to the entire socio-economic sector.

This volume offers an overview of the state-of-the-art related to water science and technology in model regions in Europe, Africa, Middle East, Asia and America, but mainly focuses on the Mediterranean environment and surrounding regions. It gives new insights on characterisation, evaluation, quality, management, protection, modelling on environmental hydrology, groundwater, hydrochemistry, sustainable water resources studies and hydrologic engineering approaches by international researchers.

Main topics include:

1. Hydrology, Climatology and Water-Related Ecosystems
2. Hydrochemistry and Isotopic Hydrology
3. Groundwater Assessment and Management: mapping, exploration, abstraction and modelling
4. Water Resources Sustainability and Climate Change
5. Hydrologic Engineering and Urban Groundwater

Enhances the understanding of water studies in model regions in Europe, America, Africa, Middle East and Asia, but mainly focuses on the Mediterranean environment and surrounding regions Provides new insights on sustainable water characterisation, evaluation, management and protection Includes case studies that illustrate how water sciences and technology can contribute to promoting a more sustainable environment Discusses latest advances in water sciences from diverse backgrounds, as well as highlight the role of the variability and climate change in hydrological systems

Autorentext
Dr. Merkel studied Chemistry and Geology at the Technical University of Munich (Germany). He received his Ph.D. degree there in 1983 and his Habilitation in 1992 at the University of Kiel (Germany). From 1993 to 2015 he was a full Professor of Hydrogeology and Hydrochemistry at the Technical University of Freiberg (Germany). From 1995 to 2014 he was a director of the Institute of Geology, during five years as a Dean of the Faculty of Geosciences, Geoengineering and Mining, and from 2014 to 2015 he was appointed as a Vice President for Research. Since October 2015, Dr. Merkel is the Vice President for Strategy Development at the Technical University of Freiberg. Dr. Merkel initiated in 1995 the International Conference on Uranium Mining and Hydrogeology (UMH), which was held for seven times in Freiberg. He was speaker of the DFG Research Training Group and has been dealing with arid Hydrogeology, impact of mining on the water, the speciation of elements and numerical modeling ofgroundwater flow, and chemical reactions and the reactive transport. He was co-founder of the course Geoecology in Freiberg in 2008. In 2002 he founded with others the Scientific Diving Center at the Technical University of Freiberg and established two modules for various studies. He has co-published more than 125 research articles in international indexed and refereed journals. In 2015 Dr. Merkel joined the AJGS as an Associate Editor responsible for evaluating submissions in the fields of Hydrogeology & Mining Geology. **
** Dr. Chaminé is a skilled Geologist and Professor of engineering geosciences at School of Engineering (ISEP) of the Polytechnic of Porto, with over 28 years' experience in multidisciplinary geosciences research, consultancy and practice. He studied geological engineering and geology (BSc, 1990) at the Universities of Aveiro and Porto (Portugal), respectively. He received his PhD in geology at the University of Porto in 2000 andspent his postdoctoral research in applied geosciences at the University of Aveiro (2001-2003). In 2011 he received his Habilitation (DSc) in geosciences from Aveiro University.

Before joining academy, he worked over a decade in international projects for mining, geotechnics and groundwater industry and/or academia related to geodynamics and regional geology, hard-rock hydrogeology and water resources, engineering geosciences and applied geomorphology, rock engineering and georesources. His research interests span over fundamental to applied fields: GIS mapping techniques for applied geology, structural geology and regional geology, engineering geosciences and rock engineering, slope geotechnics, mining geology and hydrogeomechanics, hard-rock hydrogeology, exploration hydrogeology, urban groundwater and hydromineral resources. He has interests on mining geoheritage, history of cartography, military geosciences and higher-education dissemination, skills and core values.

Presently, he is Head of the Laboratory of Cartography and Applied Geology (LABCARGA|ISEP), Senior Researcher at Centre GeoBioTec|UA and Centre IDL|U.Lisbon, as well as belongs to the executive board of the MSc/BSc Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering (OE+EUR-ACE Label) and the Department of Geotechnical Engineering (ISEP). Currently, he is a board member of the Portuguese Geotechnical Society (SPG) and was a board member of the APGeom Portuguese Association of Geomorphologists (20092013). He was consultant and or responsible over 65 projects of rock engineering, applied geology, hydrogeomechanics, slope geotechnics, mining geology, exploration hydrogeology, hard-rock hydrogeology, water resources, urban groundwater and applied mapping (Mozambique, Portugal, and Spain).

He has been co-authored over 195 publications in indexed journals, conference proceedings/full papers, book chapters, technical and professional papers. He co-edited 5 conference volumes, 3 special volumes, 1 special issue for journal "Environmental Earth Sciences" (2015, Springer), as well as is presently evolved in editing themed issues for journals "Sustainable Water Resources Management" (IAH+Springer) and "Geotechnical Research" (ICE). He has a wide activity as a referee for several international journals. He served as invited Expert Evaluator of Bologna Geoscience programme for DGES (Portugal) and Scientific Projects Evaluation for NCST (Kazakhstan), as well as Coordinator of "Geology on Summer/Ciência Viva" programme at ISEP for geosciences dissemination. He has been also active with teaching and supervising of many PhD, MSc and undergraduate students. He has been on the editorial board, among others, of Arabian Journal of Geosciences (SSG+Springer), Hydrogeology Journal (IAH+Springer), Geotechnical Research (UK), Current World Environment (India), Earth Science India (India), Revista Geotecnia (Portugal), and Geología Aplicada a la Ingeniería y al Ambiente (Argentina). Currently, is in organizing committee of the International Conferences Geoethics and Groundwater Management (IAH/IAPG, Porto, October 2019) and Natural Hazards Hydrological Risks (LREC, Pico Island, Azores, May 2019).

Dr. Barbieri holds a degree in Geological Sciences (1994) and a Ph.D. degree in Earth Sciences (1998) from Sapienza University of Rome (Italy). He is currently Associate Professor of Environmental Geochemistry and Hydrogeochemistry at Sapienza University of Rome (Italy). His current research focusses the application of the geochemistry methodologies in the characterization of environmental problems. In particular he studied the distribution of elements and isotopes in the Earth systems with emphasis on the use abundances and isotopic ratios in defining the interaction between differ…