ABSTRACT

Dr, Carlos Duque, Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship, Department of Geological Sciences
University of Delaware

During the last decades, the study of groundwater and surface water interaction has been reaching a more prominent position in the hydrological research. The exchange of water between aquifers and surface water bodies triggers chemical reactions and impacts in biological activity that expanded this topic to a multidisciplinary level. In spite of the increase in interest, several persistent challenges hinder the research about these processes: The heterogeneity of the interaction between groundwater and surface water, the difficulty for upscaling measurements, the chemical reactions due to the mixing of the two types of water or the problems for detecting flow that takes place under water. Seepage meters, use of temperature to detect groundwater inputs locations or the application of radioactive tracers as radon or radium are common approaches that can give answers to most of the questions but simultaneously, new ones arise when their use is compared in different regions or for different time and space scales. The implications over economic and social interests provide an interesting framework in the study of groundwater surface water interaction that will continue progressing in the coming years with the development of new technologies and combined methods. 

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