The economics of optimal urban groundwater management in southwestern USA

Hansen, Jason K.

doi:10.1007/s10040-012-0841-7

Cited by 10 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Growing populations and the changing climate will continue to increase the need for groundwater in these regions [2]. With the further development of groundwater resources comes the potential to deplete surface waters, in particular streams and rivers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Streambed Conductance on Stream Depletion

Lackey

Neupauer

Pitlick

2015

Water

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Stream depletion, which is the reduction in flow rate of a stream or river due to the extraction of groundwater in a hydraulically connected stream-aquifer system, is often estimated using numerical models. The accuracy of these models depends on the appropriate parameterization of aquifer and streambed hydraulic properties. Streambed conductance is a parameter that relates the head difference between the stream and aquifer to flow across the stream channel. It is a function of streambed hydraulic conductivity and streambed geometry. In natural systems, streambed conductance varies spatially throughout the streambed; however, stream depletion modeling studies often ignore this variability. In this work, we use numerical simulations to demonstrate that stream depletion estimates are sensitive to a range of streambed conductance values depending on aquifer properties. We compare the stream depletion estimates from various spatial patterns of streambed conductance to show that modeling streambed conductance as a homogeneous property can lead to errors in stream depletion estimates. We use the results to identify feasible locations for proposed pumping wells such that the stream depletion due to pumping from a well within this feasible region would not exceed a prescribed threshold value, and we show that incorrect assumptions of the magnitude and spatial variability of streambed conductance can affect the size and shape of the feasible region.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Streambed Conductance on Stream Depletion

Lackey

Neupauer

Pitlick

2015

Water

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“…Groundwater management models have been considered under different externalities (Provencher and Burt, 1993;Katic and Grafton, 2012;Esteban and Dinar, 2016;Koundouri et al, 2017). The design of water policies has been analysed for the agricultural sector with one crop (Burt, 1967;Deacon 1972, Gisser andSanchez, 1980b) or two crops (Latinopoulos and Sartzetakis, 2015), for the urban sector (Hansen, 2012) or for both irrigated agriculture and urban sector (Haavisto et al, 2019;Roseta-Palma and Brasao, 2004 in a context of pollution). Part of this economic literature of groundwater management has been analysed using the "bathtub" or "milk carton" model consisting in a single-cell aquifer with natural recharge as input, natural drainage and pumping as outputs (Gisser and Sanchez, 1980b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Groundwater Management in a Two-Cell Aquifer Model

Augeraud-Véron

Péreau

2022

Environ Model Assess

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The design of optimal water policies between farmers, municipalities and groundwaterdependent ecosystem is analysed in a hydro-economic model with physical interactions between a confined aquifer and a shallow aquifer having a natural drainage. Based on the Pecos Basin case study, we analyse the optimal trajectories of the water tables and the water allocation between users and environment flows for the ecosystems. We also explore the consequences for the water manager to use a one-cell model instead of the two-cell model. Our results show the importance to consider hydraulic conductivities for the preservation of groundwater-dependent ecosystems.

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“…A range of groundwater sustainability policies have emerged in response to current and projected water resource degradation (Gleeson et al 2012;Elshall et al 2020). This includes sustainable yield and related policies, which limit groundwater pumping to levels that can be sustained over the long-term without compromising societally defined human and ecological uses of the resource (Hansen 2012;Pierce et al 2013;Rudestam and Langridge 2014;Elshall et al 2020). Second, watershed protection programs focused on maintaining or enhancing hydrologic ecosystem services, including groundwater recharge, are rapidly growing, particularly in the tropics (Abell et al 2017;Salzman et al 2018;Brauman et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of land-cover and watershed protection futures on sustainable groundwater management in a heavily utilized aquifer in Hawai‘i (USA)

et al. 2021

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Groundwater sustainability initiatives, including sustainable yield and watershed policy protection policies, are growing globally in response to increasing demand for groundwater, coupled with concerns about the effects of climate and land-cover change on groundwater supply. Improved understanding of the impacts of watershed management on groundwater yields and management costs—particularly in the broader context of climate and land-cover change—is critical to inform these initiatives and facilitate integrated land and water management. This study develops a novel, spatially explicit groundwater hydrologic ecosystem services framework, which combines stakeholder-defined land-cover scenarios, sustainable yield estimation using a groundwater simulation optimization approach, and economic valuation, and applies it in the most heavily utilized aquifer Hawai‘i (USA). Sustainable yield estimates and resulting differences in replacement costs are estimated for six land-cover scenarios (with varying levels of urban development and watershed management) crossed with two water demand scenarios in a context of a dry future climate (Representative Concentration Pathway [RCP] 8.5 mid-century). Land-cover change is found to be an important, though less significant drive of changes in groundwater recharge than climate change. The degree of watershed protection, through preventing the spread of high-water-use, invasive plant species, is projected to be a much stronger land-cover signal than urban development. Specifically, full forest protection increases sustainable yield by 7–11% (30–45 million liters per day) and substantially decreases treatment costs compared with no forest protection. Collectively, this study demonstrates the hydrologic and economic value of watershed protection in a context of a dry future climate, providing insights for integrated land and water policy and management in Hawai‘i and other regions, particularly where species invasions threaten source watersheds.

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The economics of optimal urban groundwater management in southwestern USA

Cited by 10 publications

References 38 publications

Effects of Streambed Conductance on Stream Depletion

Effects of Streambed Conductance on Stream Depletion

Sustainable Groundwater Management in a Two-Cell Aquifer Model

Effects of land-cover and watershed protection futures on sustainable groundwater management in a heavily utilized aquifer in Hawai‘i (USA)

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