ABSTRACT
Since the 15th century, when the first signs of interest in groundwater appear in written documents, the Polish territory has changed many times, both in size and location. During the period 1795-1918 the Polish independent state did not exist at all due to its partition between Austria, Russia and Prussia. After WW2, Poland lost one third of its territory in the East and expanded to the West. Therefore, to write about the history of hydrogeology in Poland, a science strictly linked to territory, one must first define its borders
We work on the premise that Polish hydrogeology was developed not only in the territories now belonging to Poland, but also in areas both lost and gained throughout the course of history. This methodological assumption results in considering areas now belonging to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic republics and Russia as well as former parts of eastern Germany. Changes to polish borders only since 1795 are shown in Figure 1.
