The Water Resources Board was formed in 1964, an outcome of the Water Resources Act of 1963. Its remit was to advise the Government and the new river authorities on 'the proper use of water resources in England and Wales'. It made three major regional studies of water resources and, in 1973, advocated a national water strategy. The Water Resources Board was disbanded in 1974 following the reorganization of the water industry under the Water Act of 1973 which created the regional water authorities. In the 1970s, a decline in the rate of population growth together with an economic recession reduced the demand for water and the Board's proposals were not fully implemented. After 1974 the Central Water Planning Unit continued the Water Resources Board's role until it too was disbanded in 1979.

Norman S. Boulton (Fig. 1) was a civil engineer who achieved international recognition for his work on groundwater hydraulics. He recognized that in unconfined aquifers water is released from storage by drainage under gravity from the pore-spaces in the cone of depression as it expands. This 'delayed yield' gave a characteristic S-shape to the log-log, time-drawdown graph of water levels in an observation well near a pumping well. Boulton developed a mathematical solution that reproduced the three segments of the curve. Most of his career was spent in academia mainly at the University of Sheffield where he was Professor of Civil Engineering between 1955 and 1964. His work embraced studies of structural engineering and soil mechanics as well as groundwater flow.

After the drought of 1933-1934 the Geological Survey became responsible, under the Inland Water Survey, for collecting and collating data on groundwater. In 1935 a Water Unit was formed for this purpose. Following the Water Act of 1945, the Survey advised the Government on aspects of the Act relating to groundwater. The Act led to the introduction of quantitative hydrogeology in England and Wales. The groundwater resources of the main aquifers were assessed, well hydraulic theory was applied to British aquifers, and geophysical techniques and new instrumentation introduced.

Jack Ineson will always be associated with introducing quantitative methods to British hydrogeology. A geologist with a sound knowledge of mathematics and statistics, unusual for the time, he seized the opportunity in 1948 to apply to British aquifers the burgeoning theory of well hydraulics initiated by Theis. Ineson's career was mainly spent with the Geological Survey of Great Britain, now the British Geological Survey, but in the period 1965-1970 as Chief Geologist of the Water Resources Board. It was, however, a relatively short career with the start postponed by the Second World War and tragically truncated in June 1970 as a direct consequence of his experiences in the war.

Following the increase in oil prices in the mid‐1970s, Britain assessed its geothermal resources. Low‐temperature, hot‐water resources, in the range 40°C to 100°C, occur in Permo‐Triassic sandstones in several deep sedimentary basins. In total these resources are estimated at 69.1 × 10 18 joules (J) (2576 million tonnes coal equivalent). Resources also occur in Upper Palaeozoic aquifers but, as the permeability of these aquifers depends upon fissures, exploitation is difficult. The only surface manifestations of hot water at depth are the warm springs at Bath and Bristol and in the Peak District and Taff Valley, which issue from the Carboniferous Limestone. The potential of radiothermal granites for Hot Dry Rock (HDR) development has also been investigated, particularly in the Carnmenellis granite in Cornwall. Three boreholes drilled in the granite to depths of over 2 km have been connected by developing natural fractures. Water circulation between the boreholes and through the fractured rock has been successful.

The principal hydrogeological provinces are identified and briefly described. The main aquifers are in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic cover which overlies the Hercynian basement. North of the Hercynian Front, an older cover of Devonian and Carboniferous rocks, resting on Caledonian basement, contains aquifers of secondary importance. Groundwater is a very essential component of freshwater supplies in Western Europe.

The Water Act of 1945 can be considered to mark the beginning of modem quantitative hydrogeology in the UK. It introduced a period of some 20 years during which the assessment of resources was the dominant issue as groundwater was developed to meet the increasing post-war demands. The significant effect that groundwater abstraction had on river flows was one of the reasons for the Water Resources Act of 1963. This legislation made regional groundwater management, with the river basin as the basic unit, a practical objective. From 1974, the degradation of groundwater quality and the risk of pollution increasingly became the main issue. Groundwater resources of England and Wales provide 35% of public water supplies. About 30% of the infiltration to the main aquifers of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic is abstracted. The use of groundwater has increased by 80% since 1948 when data first became available.Groundwater is now seen as a regional resource developed within the sophisticated water resource systems that are necessary for effective river basin management. Development must consider all demands on an aquifer including not only water supply but environmental aspects such as maintaining river flows and wetland environments.

Abstract Some 100 million years ago, in the period of geological time known as the Late Cretaceous, the area that now surrounds the North Sea lay about 10° further south in the latitude of the present north coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The average temperature was about 20°C and sea level was probably several hundred metres higher than today. Only the highest parts of the ancient massifs remained as land. These had low relief and, as the climate was arid, little erosion was taking place and the limited detritus was deposited close to the shoreline. In the warm waters of this sea, over a period of about 35 million years, a soft white ooze formed from the accumulation of the skeletal plates of microscopic planktonic algae, and this ooze became the limestone known today as chalk, and which makes up the lithostratigraphic unit called the Chalk. Although it formed over much of what is today northern Europe, as well as over parts of North America and Asia, this book is concerned only with the Chalk deposited in and around the present North Sea Basin, during Upper Cretaceous and Lower Palaeocene (Danian) times.

Abstract Some aquifers and petroleum reservoirs consist of porous rock which is traversed by fissures. It is common for the rock mass to possess significant porosity but low to moderate permeability, and for the fissures to contribute little to the total porosity of the rock but to contribute most of the permeability. The Chalk is an example of these aquifers or reservoirs, which are said to possess dual porosity or double porosity. The porosity and permeability components contributed by the fissures are referred to as the fissure (or fracture) porosity and permeability. The blocks bounded by the fissures are usually described as matrix blocks, and the non-fissured fraction of the porosity and permeability as the matrix (or matric) components (Fig. 3.la).

Abstract A glance at an atlas of North-west Europe reveals the strong negative correlation between annual precipitation and population density. This is particularly evident in areas such as the Netherlands, south-east England, and the Paris Basin. The high demand for water in these densely populated and often highly developed areas is met largely from groundwater and frequently from the Chalk, which currently provides water supplies totalling almost 8.5 × 106m3 d−1. The chalk is a considerable economic asset to North-west Europe in other ways.

R.A. Downing & W.B. Wilkinson: Groundwater - the present and the future A.C. Skinner: Groundwater - legal controls and organizational aspects M. Owen, H.G. Headworth, & M. Morgan-Jones: Groundwater in basin management W.B. Willkinson & F.C. Brassington: Rising groundwater levels - an international problem C.M.K. Gardner, J.P. Bell, J.D. Cooper, W.G. Darling, & C.E. Reeve: Groundwater recharge and water movement in the unsaturated zone C. Neal, D.G. Kinniburgh, & P.G. Whitehead: Shallow groundwater systems G.P. Jones & F.C. Brassington: Data collection, storage, retrieval, and interpretation G.M. Williams, C.P. Young, & H.D. Robinson: Landfill disposal of wastes J.W. Lloyd, G.M. Williams, S.S.D. Foster, R.P. Ashley, & A.R. Lawrence: Urban and industrial groundwater pollution J.M. Parker, C.P. Young, & P.J. Chilton: Rural and agricultural pollution of groundwater L. Clarke, N.C. Blakey, S.S.D. Foster, & J.M. West: Microbiology of aquifers N.A. Chapman & T.J. McEwan: Geological and hydrogeological aspects of the deep disposal of nuclear wastes in Britain J.A. Barker: Transport in fractured rock R. Mackay & P.E. O'Connell: Statistical methods for characterizing hydrogeological parameters J.N. Andrews: Noble gases and radioelements in groundwaters W.M. Edmunds & D. Savage: Geochemical characteristics of groundwater in granites and related crystalline rocks R.A. Downing, R.H. Parker, & D.A. Gray: Geothermal energy in the United Kingdom J.W. Lloyd, R.I. Jeffrey, & N.H. Neill: Hydrogeological assessments for underground mines R.W. Simpson: The international scene - the involvement of British hydrologists.

Geological JournalVolume 23, Issue 4 p. 344-344 Book ReviewFree Access Applied geothermics edited by M. Economides and P.O. Ungemach, John Wiley and Sons, 1987. no. of pages: 238. price: £37.50 (hardback) R. A. Downing, R. A. DowningSearch for more papers by this author R. A. Downing, R. A. DowningSearch for more papers by this author First published: October/December 1988 https://doi.org/10.1002/gj.3350230410AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume23, Issue4October/December 1988Pages 344-344 RelatedInformation

Summary The U.K. contains seven groundwater provinces. Regional groundwater flow systems occur in these provinces above an essentially impermeable basement of varying age. The pattern of flow in the U.K. is strongly influenced by the distribution of the Permo-Triassic sandstones. Intermediate flow systems are encouraged by the scarp and vale topography that has developed as a consequence of the alternating sequence of aquifers and aquicludes in the Mesozoic. Regional changes in groundwater chemistry reveal the direction of flow paths, and isotopic ratios and inert gas contents give an indication of the residence time of water in the flow systems. The composition of the groundwater in deep systems has been modified by shale-membrane filtration. Density settling may be a feature in thick relatively homogeneous aquifers.

Geothermal prospects in the UK are represented by low enthalpy resources in deep sedimentary basins and 'Hot Dry Rock' (HDR) resources in radiothermal granites, and possibly in deep basement rocks where they are overlain by thick low conductivity sediments. The low enthalpy resources are in Permo-Triassic sandstones at temperatures of more than 40°C. Four deep exploration wells have been drilled to investigate the potential of these sedimentary aquifers. The main HDR resource potential is associated with major granite batholiths in southwest and northern England where temperatures are predicted to be 200°C at about 5.4 and 6 km respectively. The HDR potential is being investigated by the Camborne School of Mines at their test site in Cornwall where three boreholes have been drilled to depths of between 2 and 2.5 km. The Hot Dry Rock Accessible Resource Base at temperatures of more than 100°C and depths of less than 7 km is 36 X 10 21 joules (equivalent to 130 × 10 4 million tons of coal). The low enthalpy Geothermal Resource of the Permo-Triassic sandstones at temperatures of more than 40°C is 200 × 10 l8 joules (equivalent to about 8000 million tons of coal). If only a small fraction of these resources could be developed, it would be significant in terms of the UK’s energy balance.