Groundwater Quality and Vulnerability: Insights from Hydrogeology, Hydrogeochemistry, Hydrogeological Processes, and Environmental Isotopes

Groundwater is one of the most critical freshwater resources, sustaining drinking water supply, agriculture, and ecosystems worldwide. Its occurrence, movement, and chemical composition are governed by hydrogeological processes and interactions with geological materials. Hydrogeochemistry and environmental isotopes provide essential tools for tracing groundwater origin, age, and flow pathways, thereby enabling more robust assessments of groundwater quality and vulnerability. In the context of increasing pressures from contamination, over-extraction, and land-use change, a process-based understanding of groundwater systems is crucial for effective management. This Research Topic aims to advance such understanding by focusing on integrative approaches that explicitly combine hydrogeology, hydrogeochemistry, and environmental isotopes. Contributions are expected to enhance the characterization of aquifer systems, identify contamination sources, and improve vulnerability assessment through tracer-informed and process-based analyses. By emphasizing these core methodological frameworks, the Topic seeks to support the development of scientifically grounded strategies for sustainable groundwater management at regional to global scales.Groundwater is a critical freshwater resource that sustains drinking water supply, agricultural production, and ecosystem functions worldwide. However, it is increasingly threatened by over-extraction, contamination, and land-use pressures. Despite its importance, many aquifer systems remain insufficiently characterized in terms of their hydrogeological structure, hydrogeochemical evolution, and vulnerability to degradation. In particular, limited integration of hydrogeological, hydrogeochemical, and environmental isotopic approaches constrains a process-based understanding of groundwater quality dynamics. This knowledge gap hinders accurate vulnerability assessment and limits the development of effective, science-based groundwater management strategies.This Research Topic focuses on groundwater systems through an integrative methodological framework that explicitly centers hydrogeology, hydrogeochemistry, and environmental isotopes as core tools for groundwater vulnerability and water quality assessment. Contributions are encouraged to address aquifer characterization, contamination pathways, groundwater vulnerability, and water quality evolution using process-based and tracer-informed approaches.Emphasis is placed on studies that integrate hydrogeological analysis with hydrogeochemical data and isotopic techniques to advance understanding of subsurface processes and groundwater system dynamics. Submissions may include field-based investigations, laboratory analyses, and modeling approaches, provided they incorporate a substantive hydrogeochemical and/or isotopic component.Studies addressing groundwater recharge, climate-change impacts, or coastal aquifer dynamics are considered only when supported by robust hydrogeochemical or isotopic evidence and a clear groundwater-focused framework. Similarly, catchment-scale water quality studies must maintain a direct and explicit focus on groundwater systems to fall within scope. Both original research articles and comprehensive reviews are invited, including case studies, comparative analyses, and methodological advancements that strengthen groundwater vulnerability assessment and support sustainable groundwater management at regional to global scales. Topic editors: Erkan Dişli, Rosa María Fuentes Rivas Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/80959/groundwater-quality-and-vulnerability-insights-from-hydrogeology-hydrogeochemistry-hydrogeological-processes-and-environmental-isotopes