Keywords

1 Introduction

Socio-hydrogeology is a recently developed discipline promoting the structured incorporation of the social dimension into hydrogeological assessments Re (2015).

Barthel and Siedl (2017) highlighted that, even when collaborations between natural and social sciences targeted to groundwater research are implemented, description of applied interdisciplinary methodology is scarcely found. Moreover, Re (2015), and Hynds et al. (2018) pointed out that participatory approaches are often included in studies about groundwater resources, however, a lack of structured approach is often a common factor in these cases. As a result, hydrogeologists often miss a great opportunity to engage first hand with the stakeholders involved in studied groundwater-related issue.

Therefore, understanding the social structure of the studied groundwater system should be a fundamental step when hydrogeological investigations are targeted to propose new e-science-based management practices respectful of the real needs of local populations, thus reducing the likelihood of creating conflicts among stakeholders. The latter is indeed a key issue, especially when competition for a shared good may occur (The Water Channel 2019).

The goal of this contribution is to discuss how the rapidly evolving discipline of socio-hydrogeology can underpin groundwater management and the key issues to face when geoethics is at stake.

Emphasis will be put in discussing the need for a more active (and structured) engagement from the international community of hydrogeologists, and the potentials of socio-hydrogeology in supporting ethical groundwater management.

2 Understanding the Reciprocity Between People and Groundwater

The socio-hydrogeological approach is centred on the identification of the cause and effect relationship between people and groundwater. The key is therefore to go beyond classical hydrogeological and hydrogeochemical assessments, by not only looking at how human activities can affect groundwater properties (i.e. quality and quantity), but also at the impacts of inadequate groundwater quality and quantity on human wellbeing Re (2015). Disentangling the complexity of human–groundwater interaction also means to both understand how the aforementioned interactions happen but also to understand why they happen.

To do so, a stakeholder analysis performed at the early stage of a hydrogeological assessment would allow hydrogeologists to better understand the relationships among all the actors involved (directly or indirectly) in the groundwater issue under investigation. This would permit avoiding conflicts due to the competition over a shared resource, and to ensure that all interests, including those of marginal groups, are considered. In particular, the integration of Social Network Analysis (SNA) in hydrogeological assessment favours the understanding of the power relations among concerned stakeholders, a necessary requisite to facilitate collaboration and trust in view of the challenges eventually imposed by the implementation of new science-based management practices (Tringali et al. 2017). Additionally, as demonstrated by Musacchio et al. (2020), SNA can also permit to unveil the social factors underpinning groundwater governance. Therefore, the adoption of a social relational approach (Bodin et al. 2011) in hydrogeology would represent a benefit in terms of assessing the values which underpin appropriate behaviours and practices when human activities interact with groundwater resources.

Furthermore, the inclusion of structured interviews with well’s owners and farmers involved in the monitoring network in the groundwater assessment procedure to would allow hydrogeologists to better constraint research challenges and to retrieve reliable information on local know-how, useful to support hydrogeological and hydrogeochemical findings (Re et al. 2017). Indeed, by strengthening the interaction and confrontation with (ground)water end-users, it will be possible to foster capacity building and results dissemination. In this framework, it is important to underline that public engagement (PE) should be not only targeted to information collection, but also to develop a network of mutual trust with local water users. Therefore, the same time and energies spent to questionnaires administration should be dedicated to bringing results “back to the farmers” (Re et al. 2017), and to find adequate tools for effective communication and outreach strategies (Re and Misstear 2017).

3 Ethical, Cultural, and Social Implications of Hydrogeology

Socio-hydrogeology requires an effort for hydrogeologists to open up to new disciplines and go beyond the “silo mentality” (Daly et al. 2016), by looking at ethical, social, and cultural implications of hydrogeological assessments.

This clearly means to ensure that a research does not cause any conflict or involuntarily marginalize some stakeholders or minorities. Getting acquainted with the social factors influencing water use and management also implies understanding the social value of groundwater for a given community. To this end, the integration of groundwater quantity and quality assessments with social impact assessment (SIA) would also be an asset. In addition, hydrogeologists should also take care of project suitability, thus ensure that project impacts continue also once all the activities are completed.

For this reason, specific attention should be paid to capacity building and knowledge transfer to local communities and authorities. The result will be an increased and broader awareness of groundwater resources issues for both hydrogeologists and groundwater users, thus resulting in more effective research activities, education, and communication. In fact, as stressed by Limaye (2017) hydrogeologists should orientate their research work towards solving practical problems and share knowledge to local communities so as to ensure stakeholders participation in groundwater management.

In addition, the assessment of the social impact of any hydrogeological assessment should be a fundamental requisite to avoid conflicts generated by the lack of adequate knowledge of the relations between local communities and water in any given cultural background. This has been recently as demonstrated by “Pani Check” and “Pani Doctors”, a documentary film project about a socio-hydrogeological project in Jaipur (Frommen and Ambrus 2019).

4 Social Responsibilities of Hydrogeologists and Groundwater Scientists

In line with the overall description of geoethics (IAPG 2019), socio-hydrogeology can represent an excellent opportunity for hydrogeologists to become more conscious of their social role and responsibilities.

These include (but are not limited to):

  • To ensure an adequate transfer of research outcome and ultimately the support of good groundwater governance.

  • To ensure that participation and outreach are not just a unilateral dissemination of knowledge or a mere “ticked box” in project’s deliverables. Instead, hydrogeologists should use socio-hydrogeology to create the opportunity for testing new communication tools, and interactive learning, thus paving the way for citizen science and participatory groundwater monitoring assessment. Ultimately, co-management through local collective action should be explored as a way of effectively target critical groundwater management issues (Shalsi et al. 2019).

  • To foster the inclusion of all visions and needs of concerned water users, including minorities and marginal groups. In addition, although groundwater and gender are intrinsically linked, groundwater research generally does not have a gendered approach. To this end, the collection of sex-disaggregated data (e.g. by adopting the UNESCO-WWAP Toolkit on Sex-disaggregated Water Data in PE activities; UNESCO-WWAP 2019) would facilitate the understanding of the possibly unequal power relations between men and women when groundwater issues are at stake.

  • To walk the talk, hence bringing science (and scientific knowledge related to groundwater protection and conservation) in our daily life, thus making hydrogeologists advocate of (ground)water protection and management (Responsible Water Scientists 2019).

5 Future Challenges

Socio-hydrogeology works at the interface between geosciences and social sciences. It must be stressed, however, that by encouraging hydrogeologists to get familiar with tools and techniques typical of the social sciences, this approach does not aim to replace social scientists, nor does it aim at substituting interdisciplinary projects. Instead, it paves the way for holistic assessments, which are a starting point for projects where a full integrated assessment cannot be implemented (Re 2015).

Socio-hydrogeology can therefore represent a powerful tool to influence the awareness of society regarding problems related to geo-resources and geo-environment. In this framework, future development and challenges include the application of such an approach in different case studies worldwide and to identify the most suitable tools for adequately integrate geosciences and social sciences.

To support these challenges, the new Socio-Hydrogeology Network of the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH 2019) has been recently launched. The overall goal of the network is to create a platform for hydrogeologists who work at the interface between society and groundwater for discussing the challenges, opportunities, and advances within such an emerging research field.