Hydro-economic analysis of groundwater pumping for irrigated agriculture in California’s Central Valley, USA

Medellín–Azuara, Josué; MacEwan, Duncan; Howitt, Richard E.; Koruakos, George; Dogrul, Emin C.; Brush, Charles Francis; Kadir, Tariq N.; Harter, Thomas; Melton, F. S.; Lund, Jay R.

doi:10.1007/s10040-015-1283-9

Cited by 74 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…There is a growing body of studies that use IWFM for groundwater resources analysis, management, and planning under complex requirements [27,[42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49]. In this section, some of these studies carried out by C2VSim that highlight the features IWFM that are instrumental in effective groundwater resources analysis and management are described.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Groundwater Modeling in Support of Water Resources Management and Planning under Complex Climate, Regulatory, and Economic Stresses

Dogrul¹,

Brush²,

Kadir³

2016

Water

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Abstract:Groundwater is an important resource that meets part or all of the water demand in many developed basins. Since it is an integral part of the hydrologic cycle, management of groundwater resources must consider not only the management of surface flows but also the variability in climate. In addition, agricultural and urban activities both affect the availability of water resources and are affected by it. Arguably, the Central Valley of the State of California, USA, can be considered a basin where all stresses that can possibly affect the management of groundwater resources seem to have come together: a vibrant economy that depends on water, a relatively dry climate, a disparity between water demand and availability both in time and space, heavily managed stream flows that are susceptible to water quality issues and sea level rise, degradation of aquifer conditions due to over-pumping, and degradation of the environment with multiple species becoming endangered. Over the past fifteen years, the California Department of Water Resources has developed and maintained the Integrated Water Flow Model (IWFM) to aid in groundwater management and planning under complex, and often competing, requirements. This paper will describe features of IWFM as a generic modeling tool, and showcase several of its innovative applications within California.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Groundwater Modeling in Support of Water Resources Management and Planning under Complex Climate, Regulatory, and Economic Stresses

Dogrul¹,

Brush²,

Kadir³

2016

Water

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“…Reductions to irrigated land areas are one mechanism that would expectedly reduce groundwater demands (Massoud et al, ). Hydroeconomic models suggest that lands growing less‐profitable crops may be more likely to be fallowed during droughts, although decisions to fallow are complex and incorporate considerations beyond water availability (e.g., price expectations) (Medellín‐Azuara et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

California's Central Valley Groundwater Wells Run Dry During Recent Drought

Jasechko

Perrone

2020

Earth's Future

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Declining water tables are causing wells to run dry in California, but the prevalence and spatial distribution of wells that have run dry are not known beyond anecdotal and voluntary reports. Here, we apply a new, simple, and measurement-driven method to calculate a localized water table; we show, for the first time using observations, that up to one-in-five wells now runs dry in California's Central Valley. The spatial distribution of wells identified as having dried up replicates hot spots of wells identified as having run dry in a voluntary reporting system, while also capturing impacts on groundwater wells that have not reportedly run dry. We assess the rates of drilling throughout the Central Valley and find, surprisingly, that domestic wells are being drilled deeper at a rate that exceeds agricultural wells across much of the central Central Valley. Because new groundwater wells are costly (i.e., $10,000 to $100,000), we suggest explicitly considering dry wells in groundwater sustainability planning to protect homes and farms from the loss of access to reliable water supplies in the future.Plain Language Summary Anecdotal evidence suggests that groundwater level declines are causing wells to run dry in California's Central Valley, threatening access to reliable water supplies. Here we show with observational data that thousands of wells ran dry at the peak of the recent drought, especially in the southeastern Central Valley. We use groundwater well construction data to show that domestic water wells ran dry in disproportionate numbers, because typical domestic wells are shallower than typical agricultural wells. The results of this work can be used as water agencies are considering current and future impacts of groundwater depletion on groundwater users.

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“…Moreover, we suggest that targeting groundwater management to producers whose well yields are most sensitive to further depletion is likely to result in greater welfare benefits than policies that are applied uniformly. Existing hydro‐economic models of groundwater management [e.g., Brozović et al ., ; Bulatewicz et al ., ; Athanassoglou et al ., ; Peterson and Saak , ; Steward et al ., ; Medellín‐Azuara et al ., ] do not capture adequately these important feedbacks between aquifer depletion, well yields, and agricultural productivity. We suggest that such models therefore will be unable to provide reliable insights about the distributional impacts of depletion, or about how policies to control groundwater use should be implemented spatially and temporally to maximize welfare benefits from limited groundwater resources.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of initial aquifer conditions on economic benefits from groundwater conservation

Foster

Brozović

Butler

2017

Water Resources Research

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Worldwide, there is growing recognition of the need to reduce agricultural groundwater use in response to rapid rates of aquifer depletion. To date, however, few studies have evaluated how benefits of conservation vary along an aquifer's depletion pathway. To address this question, we develop an integrated modeling framework that couples an agro‐economic model of farmers' field‐level irrigation decision‐making with a borehole‐scale groundwater flow model. Unique to this framework is the explicit consideration of the dynamic reductions in well yields that occur as an aquifer is depleted, and how these changes in intraseasonal groundwater supply affect farmers' ability to manage production risks caused by climate variability and, in particular, drought. For an illustrative case study in the High Plains region of the U.S., we apply our model to analyze the value of groundwater conservation activities for different initial aquifer conditions. Our results demonstrate that there is a range of initial conditions for which reducing pumping will have long‐term economic benefits for farmers by slowing reductions in well yields and prolonging the usable lifetime of an aquifer for high‐value irrigated agriculture. In contrast, restrictions on pumping that are applied too early or too late will provide limited welfare benefits. We suggest, therefore, that there are “windows of opportunity” to implement groundwater conservation, which will depend on complex feedbacks between local hydrology, climate, crop growth, and economics.

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Hydro-economic analysis of groundwater pumping for irrigated agriculture in California’s Central Valley, USA

Cited by 74 publications

References 13 publications

Groundwater Modeling in Support of Water Resources Management and Planning under Complex Climate, Regulatory, and Economic Stresses

Groundwater Modeling in Support of Water Resources Management and Planning under Complex Climate, Regulatory, and Economic Stresses

California's Central Valley Groundwater Wells Run Dry During Recent Drought

Effects of initial aquifer conditions on economic benefits from groundwater conservation

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