Isotope Techniques for the Evaluation of Water Sources for Domestic Supply in Urban Areas

In many urban centres of the world, rapid population growth and water demand for various uses has placed a serious constraint on both quantity and quality of available local water resources. In many cases, urbanization results in profound changes in the local water balance, groundwater recharge conditions and the perturbation of the hydraulic conditions (enhancing for example the impact and magnitude of floods) as well as significant pollution and degradation of water quality. Assessing sources, pathways and interactions of water bodies in urban areas require the use of various tools to properly assess water bodies for domestic uses and develop sustainable management strategies. Isotope tracers can be used, in combination with other conventional hydrological tools, to obtain key information to trace water sources and better assess the sustainability of water resources in urban areas.