General introduction : the need to protect groundwater -- Science-policy integration for common approaches linked to groundwater management in Europe -- Transferring scientific knowledge to societal use : clue from the AQUATERRA integrated project -- Groundwater management and planning : how can economics help? -- European Union groundwater policy -- US drinking water regulation : the ground water rule -- Principles of the common implementation strategy of the WFD : the groundwater Working Group -- The Pilot River Basin network : examples of groundwater-related activities -- The Harmoni-CA initiative -- Linking public participation to adaptive management -- Groundwater characterisation and risk assessment in the context of the EU Water Framework Directive -- Groundwater quality background levels -- Groundwater age and quality -- Characterisation of groundwater contamination and natural attenuation potential at multiple scales -- Improved risk assessment of contaminant spreading in fractured underground reservoirs -- Groundwater risk assessment at contaminated sites (GRACOS) : test methods and modelling approaches -- INCORE : integrated concept for groundwater remediation -- Groundwater monitoring in the policy context -- Screening methods for groundwater monitoring -- Quality assurance for groundwater monitoring -- Prevention and reduction of groundwater pollution at contaminated megasites : integrated management strategy and its application on megasite cases -- Forecasting natural attenuation as a risk-based groundwater remediation strategy -- Diffuse groundwater quality impacts from agricultural land-use : management and policy implications of scientific realities -- Integrated management principles for groundwater in the WFD context -- System approach to environmentally acceptable farming -- WATCH, water catchment areas : tools for management and control of hazardous compounds -- Methodology for the establishment of groundwater environmental quality standards -- Pesticides in European groundwaters : biogeochemical processes, contamination status and results from a case study -- Evaluation of the quantitative status of groundwater-surface water interaction at a national scale -- Conceptual models in river basin management -- Modelling reactive transport of diffuse contaminants : identifying the groundwater contribution to surface water quality -- SNOWMAN : an alternative for transnational research funding -- Incorporation of groundwater ecology in environmental policy -- Towards a science-policy interface (WISE-RTD) in support of groundwater management.