According to United Nations statistics, the world’s urban population currently
outnumbers the world’s rural population. For the growing number of
urban dwellers, water supply systems are the most important type of infrastructure
to support their daily lives. Because it is difficult to build reliable
water supply systems in developing countries, many people and industries
must utilise groundwater underneath their own properties. Consequently,
the adverse impacts of groundwater over-abstraction have become obvious
in many cities in economically developing countries in Asia. Those cities
are now facing the difficult problem of how to limit groundwater abstraction
without negative impacts on the economy or the natural environment.
Groundwater quality in these urban areas is also deteriorating, mainly due
to various human activities. Deterioration of water quality is especially
grave in the case of unconfined aquifers, which are the main source of
drinking water for people without connections to piped water-supply systems.
Meanwhile, in some developed countries in Asia, the urban groundwater
table is rising, thanks to decades-long bans on groundwater abstraction.
Because rising groundwater negatively impacts underground
infrastructures, a new scheme for urban groundwater management in these
cases is required.