Basant Maheshwari is a Distinguished Professor of Water, Environment, and Sustainability at Western Sydney University, Australia, and the Director of the Australia India Water Centre. With over three decades of international experience in water resources research, teaching, and field implementation, he has worked extensively on participatory groundwater management, managed aquifer recharge (MAR), and citizen science. His leadership of large-scale projects, including village-level monitoring and groundwater cooperatives, has contributed to improving water security and equity in rural India. Prof. Maheshwari has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles and co-edited several influential books. He is known for bridging academic research and community action, advocating for locally grounded, transdisciplinary approaches to solving complex groundwater and sustainability challenges.

• Part I: Making Groundwater Visible1. Seeing the Invisible – Why Groundwater Matters2. Groundwater and Surface Water – What Every User Should Know3. Groundwater in Crisis – The Global and Local RealitiesPart II: Governing a Shared Resource – Cooperation and Commons Thinking4. Groundwater as a Commons – What We Can Learn from Collective Action5. Building Groundwater User Collectives6. Gender, Equity and Community Empowerment7. Groundwater Monitoring by the People8. Technology for Inclusion – From Phones to Apps9. Making Groundwater Knowledge UnderstandablePart III: Recharging the Future – MAR as a Strategic Tool10. Recharging Groundwater – Demystifying MAR11. Field Realities of MAR – Lessons from Practice12. Policy, Planning and Investment for MARPart IV: Scaling Impact and Shaping the Future13. From Pilot to Policy – Scaling Participatory Approaches14. Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning15. Transdisciplinary Research and Capacity Building16. Water, Ethics and Stewardship – Reflections from the Gita17. A Blueprint for Participatory Groundwater Futures

Basant Maheshwari is a Distinguished Professor of Water, Environment, and Sustainability at Western Sydney University, Australia, and the Director of the Australia India Water Centre. With over three decades of international experience in water resources research, teaching, and field implementation, he has worked extensively on participatory groundwater management, managed aquifer recharge (MAR), and citizen science. His leadership of large-scale projects, including village-level monitoring and groundwater cooperatives, has contributed to improving water security and equity in rural India. Prof. Maheshwari has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles and co-edited several influential books. He is known for bridging academic research and community action, advocating for locally grounded, transdisciplinary approaches to solving complex groundwater and sustainability challenges.

• Part I: Making Groundwater Visible1. Seeing the Invisible – Why Groundwater Matters2. Groundwater and Surface Water – What Every User Should Know3. Groundwater in Crisis – The Global and Local RealitiesPart II: Governing a Shared Resource – Cooperation and Commons Thinking4. Groundwater as a Commons – What We Can Learn from Collective Action5. Building Groundwater User Collectives6. Gender, Equity and Community Empowerment7. Groundwater Monitoring by the People8. Technology for Inclusion – From Phones to Apps9. Making Groundwater Knowledge UnderstandablePart III: Recharging the Future – MAR as a Strategic Tool10. Recharging Groundwater – Demystifying MAR11. Field Realities of MAR – Lessons from Practice12. Policy, Planning and Investment for MARPart IV: Scaling Impact and Shaping the Future13. From Pilot to Policy – Scaling Participatory Approaches14. Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning15. Transdisciplinary Research and Capacity Building16. Water, Ethics and Stewardship – Reflections from the Gita17. A Blueprint for Participatory Groundwater Futures

Basant Maheshwari is a Distinguished Professor of Water, Environment, and Sustainability at Western Sydney University, Australia, and the Director of the Australia India Water Centre. With over three decades of international experience in water resources research, teaching, and field implementation, he has worked extensively on participatory groundwater management, managed aquifer recharge (MAR), and citizen science. His leadership of large-scale projects, including village-level monitoring and groundwater cooperatives, has contributed to improving water security and equity in rural India. Prof. Maheshwari has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles and co-edited several influential books. He is known for bridging academic research and community action, advocating for locally grounded, transdisciplinary approaches to solving complex groundwater and sustainability challenges.

• Part I: Making Groundwater Visible1. Seeing the Invisible – Why Groundwater Matters2. Groundwater and Surface Water – What Every User Should Know3. Groundwater in Crisis – The Global and Local RealitiesPart II: Governing a Shared Resource – Cooperation and Commons Thinking4. Groundwater as a Commons – What We Can Learn from Collective Action5. Building Groundwater User Collectives6. Gender, Equity and Community Empowerment7. Groundwater Monitoring by the People8. Technology for Inclusion – From Phones to Apps9. Making Groundwater Knowledge UnderstandablePart III: Recharging the Future – MAR as a Strategic Tool10. Recharging Groundwater – Demystifying MAR11. Field Realities of MAR – Lessons from Practice12. Policy, Planning and Investment for MARPart IV: Scaling Impact and Shaping the Future13. From Pilot to Policy – Scaling Participatory Approaches14. Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning15. Transdisciplinary Research and Capacity Building16. Water, Ethics and Stewardship – Reflections from the Gita17. A Blueprint for Participatory Groundwater Futures