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Sustainable groundwater management in water-scarce countries is a pragmatic example of the necessity to guide future decision-making processes by simultaneously considering local needs, environmental problems and economic development. For these reasons the new socio-hydrogeological approach, Bir Al-Nas, proposed by Re (2015), has been tested in the Grombalia region (Cap Bon Peninsula, Tunisia), to evaluate the effectiveness of `complementing hydrogeochemical and hydrogeological investigations by considering the social dimension of the issue at stake. Within this approach the social appraisal, performed through Social Network Analysis and public engagement of water endusers, allowed hydrogeologists to get acquainted with the institutional dimension of local groundwater management, identifying issues, potential gaps, such as weak knowledge transfer among concerned stakeholders, and the key actors likely to support the implementation of new science-based management practices resulting from the ongoing hydrogeological investigation. Results hence go beyond the specific relevance for the Grombaila basin, showing the effectiveness of the proposed approach and the importance to include social 2 assessment in any given hydrogeological research aimed at supporting local development through groundwater protection measures.