The Chalk aquifer of the South Downs

The Chalk aquifer of the South Downs comprises one of the most heavily utilised and strictly managed groundwater resources in Britain. It is appropriate, therefore, that the South Downs aquifer was chosen for the first systematic regional review to be carried out within the National Groundwater Study. The study aims to compile available hydrogeological information, at least by reference or database address, and to provide a summary in report form as well as populating the National Water Well Archive and associated data listings on a regional basis. The South Downs study was carried out collaboratively by the British Geological Survey Hydrogeology Group, the University of Brighton, the Environment Agency —Southern Region, the Southern Water Group, and others within BGS. The work was carried out between 1992 and 1994 and has subsequently been collated into this report. Much of the book is a review of earlier work, not least of the history of groundwater management in the region, but there are also a number of original contributions including the association of structure and groundwater flow patterns as well as the new lithostratigraphy of the Chalk, the role of down-hole geophysics in monitoring saline intrusion, and the most recent resource-management policy. This report is intended to provide information for future workers on the Chalk aquifer of the South Downs. As such, it concludes with a vision of the work that is required for the South Downs Aquifer to keep pace with the modern day stresses applied to it. It is the first in a new series of books describing regional components of the major aquifers, and will be followed by a description of the hydrogeology and hydrogeochemistry of the Chalk of Yorkshire, and later by regional reports of the Triassic sandstones and other major aquifers. National hydrogeology is described in a separate Special Memoir Series. The National Groundwater Study brings together hydrogeologists with a diversity of interests and roles, mapping geologists, tectonic and structural engineering geologists, hydrogeochemists, environmentalists and economists. This book reflects this multidisciplinarity so that the South Downs aquifer is portrayed as a dynamic and renewable resource which is capable of satisfying demand, provided that it is appropriately and sensibly managed.