Groundwater Management Practices

Groundwater Management Practices
Author: Angelos N. Findikakis
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 438
Release: 2011-06-08
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0415619874

Groundwater is an indispensable resource in many parts of the world, where it supports domestic water supply, irrigated agriculture and industry. Its increased, and often intensive, use during the last half century has created problems and raised concerns regarding the potential depletion of local aquifers, water quality degradation and various geologic hazards such as land subsidence and sinkholes. This volume includes contributions by experts from several countries who describe different groundwater management practices in their part of the world and discuss measures and actions in response to the challenges associated with the sustainability of groundwater use and the protection of the groundwater environment, as well as the evolution of legal and institutional framework needed for their implementation. It discusses past and present practices and various aspects of the regulatory and legal framework of groundwater management in Japan, China, India, Iran, Australia, the United States, Spain, Denmark, Switzerland and the European Union, and reviews recent efforts to improve the management of transboundary aquifer resources.

Groundwater Exploitation in the High Plains

Groundwater Exploitation in the High Plains
Author: David E. Kromm
Publisher:
Total Pages: 280
Release: 1992
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

In the forty years since the invention of center pivot irrigation, the Nigh Plains aquifer system has been depleted at an astonishing rate. Is the region now in danger of becoming the Great American Desert? In this volume eleven of the most knowledgeable scholars and water professionals in the Great Plains insightfully examine the dilemmas of groundwater use. They address both the technical problems and the politics of water management, providing a badly needed analysis of the implications of large-scale irrigation.

Groundwater Management in the West

Groundwater Management in the West
Author: Jeffrey S. Ashley
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 332
Release: 1999-01-01
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9780803242760

One of the greatest conundrums facing the arid western United States is the availability, use, and quality of groundwater. In large sections of the West, groundwater is the only dependable source of water for agricultural production and home consumption. Yet many of the aquifers are being depleted at a rate that will suck them dry within a century. Furthermore, dependence upon groundwater in many areas will only increase in the future. This dependence is already having serious consequences for small towns on the Great Plains. Faced with growing costs associated with deeper wells and the need for ever more advanced technology for extracting water, these towns find they lack the resources to maintain current agricultural practices. ø In this timely assessment of the West?s groundwater resources, the authors provide a detailed overview of groundwater management in the Western states. The authors present for each state the various management strategies, laws, and political realities that have made groundwater appropriation such a volatile subject. They also suggest possible difficulties that states and regions might face under current groundwater policies. By examining separate cases and viewing the West as a whole, the authors are able to identify not only the most pressing problems but also the most appropriate management techniques for protecting water supplies for future use.

Integrated Groundwater Management

Integrated Groundwater Management
Author: Anthony J Jakeman
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 756
Release: 2016-08-05
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3319235761

The aim of this book is to document for the first time the dimensions and requirements of effective integrated groundwater management (IGM). Groundwater management is a formidable challenge, one that remains one of humanity’s foremost priorities. It has become a largely non-renewable resource that is overexploited in many parts of the world. In the 21st century, the issue moves from how to simply obtain the water we need to how we manage it sustainably for future generations, future economies, and future ecosystems. The focus then becomes one of understanding the drivers and current state of the groundwater resource, and restoring equilibrium to at-risk aquifers. Many interrelated dimensions, however, come to bear when trying to manage groundwater effectively. An integrated approach to groundwater necessarily involves many factors beyond the aquifer itself, such as surface water, water use, water quality, and ecohydrology. Moreover, the science by itself can only define the fundamental bounds of what is possible; effective IGM must also engage the wider community of stakeholders to develop and support policy and other socioeconomic tools needed to realize effective IGM. In order to demonstrate IGM, this book covers theory and principles, embracing: 1) an overview of the dimensions and requirements of groundwater management from an international perspective; 2) the scale of groundwater issues internationally and its links with other sectors, principally energy and climate change; 3) groundwater governance with regard to principles, instruments and institutions available for IGM; 4) biophysical constraints and the capacity and role of hydroecological and hydrogeological science including water quality concerns; and 5) necessary tools including models, data infrastructures, decision support systems and the management of uncertainty. Examples of effective, and failed, IGM are given. Throughout, the importance of the socioeconomic context that connects all effective IGM is emphasized. Taken as a whole, this work relates the many facets of effective IGM, from the catchment to global perspective.

Groundwater Citizenship

Groundwater Citizenship
Author: Brock Ternes
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2022-01-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1666903477

The tremendous loss of groundwater has been a longstanding concern in Kansas, where areas of the High Plains aquifer have plummeted. Groundwater Citizenship: Well Owners, Environmentalism, and the Depletion of the High Plains Aquifer investigates water conservation efforts, environmental priorities, and water supply awareness among private water well owners, a key social group whose water usage is pivotal to safeguarding aquifers. This book discusses how reliance on private and public water supplies influences watering practices by asking if owning a well changes the propensity to conserve water. To explore how water supplies shape environmental actions and beliefs, sociologist Brock Ternes constructed a one-of-a-kind dataset by surveying over 850 well owners and non-well owners throughout Kansas. His analyses reveal that well ownership influences several dimensions of water consumption, and he identifies how Kansans’ notions of environmentalism are recalibrated by their systems of water provision. This book frames well owners as unique conservationists whose water use is shaped by larger structures—aquifers, water laws, and food systems. Groundwater Citizenship takes a sociological look at water systems to facilitate adaptive approaches to sustainable resource management.

Running Out

Running Out
Author: Lucas Bessire
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2022-10-04
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0691216436

Finalist for the National Book Award An intimate reckoning with aquifer depletion in America's heartland The Ogallala aquifer has nourished life on the American Great Plains for millennia. But less than a century of unsustainable irrigation farming has taxed much of the aquifer beyond repair. The imminent depletion of the Ogallala and other aquifers around the world is a defining planetary crisis of our times. Running Out offers a uniquely personal account of aquifer depletion and the deeper layers through which it gains meaning and force. Anthropologist Lucas Bessire journeyed back to western Kansas, where five generations of his family lived as irrigation farmers and ranchers, to try to make sense of this vital resource and its loss. His search for water across the drying High Plains brings the reader face to face with the stark realities of industrial agriculture, eroding democratic norms, and surreal interpretations of a looming disaster. Yet the destination is far from predictable, as the book seeks to move beyond the words and genres through which destruction is often known. Instead, this journey into the morass of eradication offers a series of unexpected discoveries about what it means to inherit the troubled legacies of the past and how we can take responsibility for a more inclusive, sustainable future. An urgent and unsettling meditation on environmental change, Running Out is a revelatory account of family, complicity, loss, and what it means to find your way back home.

Food, Energy, and Water Nexus

Food, Energy, and Water Nexus
Author: Chittaranjan Ray
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2022-01-17
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 303085728X

In this book, major issues surrounding importance of water and energy for food security in the United States and India are described representing two extremes in yield, irrigation efficiency, and automation. The farming systems in these two countries face different risks in terms of climatic shifts and systems’ resiliency to handle the shocks. One may have comparative advantage over the other, but both are susceptible. Innovations in irrigation for food and fuel production, improvements in nitrogen and water use efficiency, and rural sociological issues are discussed here. We also look into some of the unintended consequences of high productivity agriculture in terms of surface and ground water quality and impacts on ecosystem services. Finally, we present ways to move forward to meet the food demands in the next half-century in both countries. As the current world population of 7 billion is expected to reach or exceed 10 billion in the next 40 years, there will be significant additional demand for food. A rising middle class and its preference for a meat-based diet also increases the demand for animal feed. This additional food and feed production needs special considerations in water and energy management besides the development of appropriate crop hybrids to withstand future climatic shifts and other environmental factors. A resilient agricultural landscapes will also be needed to withstand climatic fluctuations, disease pressures, etc. While the upper and many middle income countries have made significant improvements in crop yield due to pressurized irrigation and automation in farming systems, the lower income countries are struggling with yield enhancements due to such limitations. The rise in population is expected to be more in Sub-Sharan Africa and Middle East (Low to middle-income countries) where the crop yields are expected to be low.