1. Highlights and common themes of groundwater management practices around the world / Angelos N. Findikakis -- 2. Groundwater resources management in Japan / Kenji Jinno and Kuniaki Sato -- 3. Groundwater management for sustainable water resources utilization in China / Bingchen Wang, Xilai Zheng and Guoqing Lin -- 4. Groundwater issues and management in the North China Plain / Yangwen Jia -- 5. Groundwater management practices and emerging challenges : lessons from a case study in the Karnataka state of south India / Sekhar Muddu. [et al.] -- 6. Groundwater management in Kandi region of Jammu Province, Jammu & Kashmir, India / Vikas Sharma and Uttam C. Sharma -- 7. Sustainable water resource management in the foothills of the Siwaliks, northwest India / Sanjay Arora -- 8. Role of groundwater in the Tehran water supply / Hamid R. Jahani -- 9. Groundwater in Spain : legal framework and management issues / Jorge Molinero. [et al.] -- 10. Groundwater management in Denmark : protection of natural resources / Anders Refsgaard and Susanne Vangsgaard -- 11. Management issues for the Edwards Aquifer, Texas (USA) / Randy J. Charbeneau and Charles W. Kreitler -- 12. Economic benefits of expanded groundwater storage in the Central and West Coast basins of southern Los Angeles county / David L. Sunding, Stephen F. Hamilton and Newsha K. Ajami -- 13. Sustainable management of groundwater resources in parts of arid south Australia / Ian F. Clark and Lynn A. Brake -- 14. Groundwater quality management practices / Eduard Hoehn -- 15. Protection of groundwater environments / Fritz Stauffer -- 16. Impacts of below-ground structures on the groundwater environment and their management / Kuniaki Sato and Takayuki Ueno -- 17. Geological hazards due to groundwater pumping and/or artificial recharge / Jiang Li and Zhuping Sheng -- 18. Groundwater-related laws in Japan / Kuniaki Sato, Katsuhiko Shichinohe and Takayuki Ueno -- 19. Groundwater-related laws, regulations and standards in China / Bingchen Wang, Xilai Zheng and Guoqing Lin -- 20. The EU groundwater regulatory framework / Philippe Quevauviller. [et al.] -- 21. Groundwater legal framework and management practices in the high plains aquifer, USA / Marios Sophocleous -- 22. UNESCO inventory of transboundary aquifers : managing shared groundwater resources wisely / Alice Aureli.