Herman Bouwer

Herman Bouwer (1927–2013) was a hydrological scientist who worked in groundwater hydrology and water resources management, with a specialization in the area of Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR). He was born in the Netherlands and moved to the United States in 1952 to study for his PhD at Cornell University. He went on to work at the U.S. Water Conservation Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, serving as director from 1972 to 1990. His research efforts on characterizing and modeling the movement of water and pollutants in the vadose zone and groundwater resulted in field and analytical methods that are used in the groundwater sciences. He authored or co-authored over 300 publications and wrote the textbook Groundwater Hydrology.

As a hydrogeologist, Bouwer is credited as "one of the first to bridge the gap between engineering, soil physics, and hydrogeology."

Early life and education

Herman Bouwer was born and raised in Haarlem, the Netherlands, in 1927, and was a teenager under German occupation during World War II.

After the war, Bouwer enrolled in the Agricultural University in Wageningen, Netherlands, and received a BS degree and a MS degree in drainage and irrigation in 1952. As a graduate student at Cornell University he conducted research in how to drain the waterlogged soils of central New York and received his PhD in agricultural and civil engineering and agronomy in 1955. In Auburn, he conducted research on unsaturated flow using resistance network analogs to solve soil physics problems prior to the development of analytical and numerical models in the groundwater sciences in the 1970s and 1980s. falling head seepage meter, pit bailing method, air entry permeameter, Bouwer-Rice slug test in unconfined aquifers, and the single-ring cylinder infiltrometer with correction for lateral divergence and hydraulic gradients.

Bouwer helped to develop the science and application of managed aquifer recharge (MAR) and soil aquifer treatment (SAT) in the United States. Groundwater recharge and reuse, including potable use, would become the focus of much of his work and interests for the rest of his career. The pilot plant consisted of a series of 6 recharge basins, each being 700 feet long by 20 feet wide. After percolating ten feet below the surface the water, it was purified, however Bouwer recommended at least 30 feet of percolation for safety considerations. Bouwer stated of the project that the earth "has always been nature's water purifier." By 1980, the technology developed to the degree that effluent water was re-purified through nanofiltration methods, recharged via injection wells into the ground and stored in aquifers.

During his lifetime, Bouwer authored or co-authored over 300 journal articles, wrote 12 book chapters. In the U.S., Bouwer advised other states, for example Florida, on sewage disposal through soil-percolation reclamation processes. His textbook, Groundwater Hydrology, was published in 1978 by McGraw-Hill.

He died on July 28, 2013, at the age of 86 from Parkinson's disease complications.

Awards

Bouwer received two USDA Superior Service Awards; the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers; the Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water in 2004 in the area of artificial groundwater recharge; the Arizona Hydrological Society Lifetime Achievement Award; and the National Ground Water Association Life Member Award in 1992 for his service contributions to the field of groundwater.

Legacy Bower is considered to be one of the first hydrogeologists "to bridge the gap between engineering, soil physics, and hydrogeology. " The award is a scholarship for students in the field of hydrology and water resources.