Groundwater around the World: A Geographic Synopsis

Jean Margat is a hydrogeologist. After fifteen years at the Service Géologique of Morocco, at the beginning of his career, he moved over to the Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM) at Orléans, France, for nearly another twenty five years. There he initiated, carried out and—in a later stage—supervised groundwater investigations. During that period he was also Director General’s personal advisor on water resources. His professional experience took him to many areas in France and abroad, first and for all in arid regions, particularly in Africa and the Middle East. In addition to his professional activities at BRGM, Jean Margat has been Vice-President of the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH) and President of the French national chapter of the Association. Currently, he is Vice-President of the Association du Plan Blue and is frequently consulted as an expert by international organisations such as FAO, UNESCO, World Bank and UNDP. He is the author of a large number of publications related to water resources assessment and management, mapping, water resources terminology and water economics. In 2008, he received the International Hydrology Prize of the IASH, UNESCO and WMO. Jac van der Gun is groundwater hydrologist. One year with a water supply company in The Netherlands was followed by four years of employment by UNDTCD in water resources assessment activities in Bolivia. Then he joined the Institute of Applied Geoscience of the R&D organisation TNO (Applied Scientific Research) in The Netherlands, where he remained employed until retirement. At TNO, Jac van der Gun participated and took responsibility for the Groundwater Reconnaissance of The Netherlands. He became also involved in the international water resources assessment and management projects of the institute, such as water resources assessment projects in Yemen and Paraguay, and he carried out numerous short missions in Asia, Latin America, Africa and Europe for various international and national organisations, providing scientific-technical inputs, supervising projects, formulating projects and programmes, or evaluating these. Jac van der Gun was actively involved in establishing the International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre, of which he became the first director in 2003. Currently, he is still active in several groundwater related projects of international organisations, mostly as a consultant to UNESCO or to UNESCO-IGRAC.