What is the Ghijben-Herzberg principle and who formulated it?

Abstract

It has been suggested in a number of historical notes that it was neither Willem Badon Ghijben nor Alexander Herzberg who formulated the famous principle now carrying their name, which relates the water-table elevation to the depth ofthe freshwater– saltwater interface in coastal aquifers. In this paper, a systematic review ofthe literature pre-dating the publication oftheir work is presented. The aim is to establish to what extent these previous works captured the essence of the Ghijben-Herzberg principle, that is, the combination ofa correct conceptual model of the hydrogeological conditions with a quantitative relationship. It was found that references to coastal fresh groundwater reserves can be traced back to Roman times, while the earliest detailed descriptions of a freshwater lens that could be found dates from the eighteenth century. The correct understanding of the hydrostatic equilibrium between fresh and salt groundwater is evident in works from the early nineteenth century. However, it was Badon Ghijben and Herzberg who combined this with the correct understanding of the groundwater conditions of a freshwater lens. It was further found that Herzberg had already recorded his findings in 1888 in a hand-written report, confirming speculation that such a report might exist.