It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {Seeing an Aquifer from Space}

A few weeks ago, Frannie was excited to share with you the discovery of a groundwater system on Mars. But she wondered, what would we see if we turned the telescopes around and looked at groundwater here on Earth?

A team of scientists from the Arizona State University asked themselves the same question. Using cutting edge space technology like NASA satellites and the Global Navigation Satellite System, in combination with ground measurements, they took a look at the Central Valley Aquifer System located in central California.

The most recent drought in the San Joaquin Valley area lasted from 2012 to 2015 and made national headlines with its land subsidence, abandonment of crop-land, and receding lakes.  The scientists from ASU measured groundwater loss as well as aquifer storage loss during the drought period in order to learn about what it takes to keep an aquifer healthy.

Their findings revealed a shocking loss of groundwater each year of the drought and, even more disturbing, a permanent loss of storage capacity in the San Joaquin Valley Aquifer.

Frannie already knew why groundwater loss was important and, after a bit of research, she learned more about the importance of storage capacity and why scientists are so worried about its loss.

Image courtesy of Arizona
Department of Water Resources

Storage capacity refers to the total amount of water that an aquifer could ever possibly hold in its permeable materials, like sand or gravel. When groundwater is depleted and not recharged, the weight of the soil causes it to compress and settle into itself until it fills all of the spaces where the water used to be. When there is no more empty space for the water to fill, the compacted soil, which is now impermeable, becomes the new aquifer boundary. The aquifer, once able to hold so much water, eventually loses its ability to store the same amount of water as before.

Aquifer storage capacity loss can happen slowly and not seem like a big deal over just one or two drought periods. The real danger is when aquifer loss happens over and over again during multiple drought periods. And storage loss is not just limited to the aquifers in California.

The research team has plans to continue to study the health of aquifers in the southwest United States. They want to be able to provide water managers all over the world with the scientific knowledge they’ll need to make difficult water use decisions and ensure that clean groundwater is available to us for years to come.

BLOG: Finding Ways That Work: Groundwater Management in the Western U.S.

by Kate Gibson, Program Coordinator, Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute

Whether it is used as a primary water source or as a buffer for variable surface water supplies, groundwater provides water security to support economic development worldwide. However, groundwater is a difficult resource to manage and presents challenges that are distinct from those related to surface water management. The Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute and the Environmental Defense Fund have partnered in an attempt to address the challenge of understanding and translating best practices for groundwater management. Their collaborative report, The Future of Groundwater in California – Lessons in Sustainable Management from Across the West, seeks to provide guidance to groundwater managers in California and beyond by drawing on the diverse experience of water management programs from across the western U.S. 

Going beyond the typical technical guidance, the report attempts to get at the “story behind the story” by drawing upon varied experiences of groundwater management to try to understand what works and what doesn’t. The report uses nine case studies from six states to present key lessons learned. Case studies are from Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Oregon, and Texas, and represent a wide range of hydrology, climates, legal structures, and water uses. 

The report begins by breaking down the issues that drive groundwater policies: surface water and groundwater interactions, long-term aquifer depletion, and water quality and other concerns. Interactions between surface water and groundwater are significant drivers of groundwater policy across the western U.S. while, in general, long-term aquifer depletion and water quality concerns have been less likely to produce binding groundwater policy changes. 

Many types of water management tools are available to water managers, ranging from strict regulations to voluntary efforts. Water managers can seek to change behavior of water users by using tools that are not intended to provide financial incentives, also sometimes referred to as “command and control” approaches. Alternatively, incentive-based tools seek to change behavior through providing direct financial incentives. Managing agencies can also take action to manage water resources on behalf of water users in the district. These actions can be categorized as agency supply augmentation and protection tools. Lastly, many water managers rely heavily on voluntary tools such as education and outreach efforts. All of these tools are present in varying degrees across the nine case studies featured in the report. 

The report distills the key elements of effective groundwater management into five themes: the importance of building trust, the need for data, using a portfolio of approaches, assuring performance, and access to adequate funding. 

Building Trust
Perhaps the most important element of groundwater management is building trust. It is vital that the people who are impacted by groundwater management policies understand and trust management goals for a program to be effective. In many of the case studies, trust building began by having broad community involvement from an early stage. Data can also be a powerful tool to visualize current groundwater conditions and show potential future impacts to groundwater resources. A community member who is skeptical of new groundwater use policies may be convinced otherwise if shown that their presently unaffected groundwater well could be impacted by groundwater quality degradation or lowering groundwater levels in the future. Use of data can give credibility to water managers and give the community a sense of ownership in the management program. Other approaches to build trust with the community include involving key stakeholder groups in the planning process and providing beneficial resources to the community, such as recreation services or agricultural cost-share programs.

The Need for Data
Data are critical for groundwater management decision making, whether that’s having an accurate record of groundwater levels or having flow meter data to track water use. However, data collection is time consuming, costly, and often controversial. It is therefore important for water managers to carefully consider how much data is “enough” data to avoid unnecessary costs and jeopardizing community trust. 

Using a Portfolio of Approaches
Across the case studies, water managers relied on a multitude of management tools and strategies. While there can be a tendency to want to choose one tool as a panacea (water metering for example), groundwater management as highlighted in the case studies typically begins with a permitting framework, a tracking system, educational component, and funding source. Once this initial framework is established, it becomes easier to add additional tools that are appropriate for local conditions. 

Assuring Performance
Effective groundwater management requires a system of monitoring and enforcement to ensure that water users are complying with management policies. Without monitoring to detect noncompliance and subsequent enforcement of the policy, there will always be an incentive for water users to ignore management requirements. However, monitoring and enforcement is often unpopular, incurring significant social, financial, and political costs. 

Funding
All of the case studies illustrated the need for adequate funding to meet groundwater management goals. Regardless of what approaches are used, groundwater management requires long-term financial resources to support education and outreach, infrastructure improvements, data collection and modeling, and monitoring and enforcement programs. Water managers rely on a wide range of funding mechanisms to support their programs including taxes, bonds, state and federal grants, and user fees.

While new groundwater managers have their work cut out for them, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel! Experience from groundwater management programs across the western U.S. provides valuable insight into aspects of groundwater management than can make or break a program. Building community trust, knowing what data are most important, using multiple approaches, assuring performance through monitoring and enforcement, and having adequate funding are critical - but not often obvious - components of groundwater management. For a more in-depth look at the case studies and lessons learned, read the entire report. To learn more about the work that we do, visit us at waterforfood.nebraska.edu.

__________

Kate Gibson is a program coordinator at the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute at the University of Nebraska. She manages policy-focused programs related to groundwater management and water security. Kate holds a Master's degree in agronomy and Bachelor's degrees in water sciences and environmental restoration from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Reach her at kgibson@nebraska.edu.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the view of The Groundwater Foundation, its board of directors, or individual members.