ABSTRACT
Groundwater governance has emerged as a relatively new concept in water resources discourses. This opening chapter sets the scene for the book in terms of an introduction to the concept and definition of groundwater governance, its critical and distinctive features, and the rationale for bringing groundwater governance into the equation of broader water and natural resources governance. Building on the recent global Groundwater Governance project, it takes a brief stock of empirical advances in groundwater governance, from the local to the global level. Finally, a heuristic framework for matching the inherent ISD (invisible, slow, distributed) signature of groundwater with governance tenets as a tool to embracing the concept of groundwater governance as well as its expression in practice is proposed. A key conclusion is that groundwater governance provides a comprehensive overarching framework that may accommodate and support more concerted and conscious approaches to targeted, while integrated, management of increasingly at-risk groundwater resources globally.
