ABSTRACT
The term groundwater usually refers to subsurface water located below the water table in saturated soils and geologic formations. In groundwater studies, an understanding of surface water and subsurface, unsaturated soil moisture, and their interactions is important. Groundwater is an important feature of the environment and a part of the hydrologic cycle; therefore, an understanding of its role in this cycle is necessary if integrated analyses are to be used in the study of watershed resources and regional assessment of contamination (Freeze and Cherry, 1979). The main objective of groundwater management is the optimal allocation of groundwater resources to water demands, taking into consideration the complex economic, environmental, and hydrogeologic constraints and conflicts in objectives. This chapter discusses the main characteristics of groundwater systems, groundwater flow equations, and groundwater modeling, and some optimization models for groundwater management are also presented.
