From William Smith to William Whitaker: the development of British hydrogeology in the nineteenth century

Abstract

Some of the earliest applications of the principles of geology to the solution of hydrologic problems were made by William Smith, who used his knowledge of strata succession to locate groundwater resources to feed the summit levels of canals and supply individual houses and towns. The industrial revolution led to a huge demand for water resources to supply new towns and cities. Nottingham, Liverpool, Sunderland and parts of London all relied on groundwater. By the middle of the nineteenth century James Clutterbuck had already recognized that groundwater was a finite resource and that if abstraction was more rapid than replenishment by rain, water levels would decline and quality would be affected by saline intrusion. In 1851 Prestwich produced the first British geological map that included groundwater information.

The Industrial Revolution and Acceptance of Hydrogeology as a Science

“…William Smith (1769–1839) was employed as a surveyor for a coal canal company and traveled the length and breadth of Great Britain recording his geological observations. In 1797 he produced the first large‐scale geological map of the area around Bath, demonstrating that he had a good understanding of stratigraphic control on springs and the significance of hydraulic head (Mather 1998). His geological map of Britain, Figure 3, published in 1815 (Winchester 2001), now rests in the Natural History Museum in London and he is rightly known as the Father of British Geology.…”

Preface

“…The brief which I was given was to review how the science of hydrogeology had developed in the UK during the 19th century (Mather 1998).…”