An efficient conveyance system for groundwater is shown to have formed in a carbonate aquifer even though it is situated in a semi-arid environment. This conveyance system comprises preferential flow pathways that developed coincident with river channels. A strong correlation between high capacity wells and proximity to higher-order river channels (i.e., within 2.5 km) is used as evidence of preferential flow pathways. Factors that contributed to development of the preferential flow paths: (i) karst development in carbonate rocks, (ii) structural exhumation of a carbonate plateau, and (iii) the requirement that the groundwater regime of the watershed has adequate capacity to convey sufficient quantities of water at the required rates across the full extent of the watershed. Recognition of these preferential pathways in proximity to river channels provides a basis to locate where high capacity wells are likely (and unlikely) and indicates that groundwater flow within the watershed is relatively rapid, consistent with flow rates representative of karstic aquifers. This understanding provides a basis for better informed decisions regarding water-resource management of a carbonate aquifer in a semi-arid environment.

The theory of gravity-driven regional groundwater flow was first proposed in 1962/3 based on the Laplace equation. Hydraulic-head patterns were calculated for a two dimensional trapezoidal and homogeneous flow domain with flow lines drawn by hand. The flow region was intended to represent one flank of a stream basin with a periodically undulating water table. At the dawn of numerical modeling the results generated international interest. Numerical models began to be produced with progressively increasing complexity of basin geometry, types and distributions of permeability and time dependent flow. One of the most important results of the first analyses was the birth of the flow-system concept. In a flow system groundwater moves from relatively highly elevated recharge areas, through medium high mid-line regions to relatively low lying discharge areas where it may resurface. Because flow systems are associated with topographic elements of different scale, they are self-organized in hierarchically nested geometric patterns.
The understanding of the systematized structure of basinal groundwater flow soon resulted in the recognition that flow systems act like subsurface conveyor belts. They mobilize and remove matter and heat from the recharge area, pick up more or/and emplace some of it en route, and deposit them in the discharge region. In short: flowing groundwater is a general geologic agent. The original „Theory of regional groundwater flow” became thus expanded into a bimodal umbrella theory with two component theories: i) „The hydraulics of basin-scale groundwater flow” and ii) „The geologic agency of regional groundwater flow”. More than half a century after its conception the theory is extensively analyzed and continues to be applied to a growing number of groundwater related disciplines