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Groundwater Hydraulics
Published in Frank R. Spellman, Land Subsidence Mitigation, 2017
If you withdraw money at a faster rate than you deposit new money in your bank account, you will eventually begin to have money supply problems. Likewise, if water is pumped out of the ground faster than it is being replenished over the long term, then similar problems will develop. The volume of groundwater in storage is decreasing in many areas of the United States in response to pumping. Groundwater depletion is primarily caused by sustained groundwater pumping. Some of the nega- tive effects of groundwater depletion are listed below and depicted in Figure 5.12:Drying up of wellsReduction of water in streams and lakesDeterioration of water qualityIncreased pumping costsLand subsidence
Observational Network and Drought Monitoring
Published in Saeid Eslamian, Faezeh Eslamian, Handbook of Drought and Water Scarcity, 2017
Environmental losses are due to lower water levels in reservoirs, lakes, and ponds and reduced flows from springs and streams would reduce the availability of feed and drinking water and adversely affect fish and wildlife habitat. It may also cause loss of forest cover, migration of wildlife, and their greater mortality due to increased contact with agricultural producers. A prolonged drought may bring stress for the endangered species and loss of biodiversity. Reduced streamflow and loss of wetlands may bring changes in the levels of salinity. Increased groundwater depletion, land subsidence, and reduced recharge may damage aquifers and adversely affect the quality of water. The degradation of landscape quality, including increased soil erosion, may lead to a more permanent loss of biological productivity of the landscape and thus cause land degradation and desertification.
Water Quality and Quantity: Globalization
Published in Brian D. Fath, Sven E. Jørgensen, Megan Cole, Managing Water Resources and Hydrological Systems, 2020
Kristi Denise Caravella, Jocilyn Danise Martinez
Some of the major causes of groundwater depletion include population growth and increased demand for food supply, increased trade, increased agricultural irrigation, and environmental changes including changes in rainfall, temperature, evaporation rates, soil quality, vegetation type, and water runoff. This section reviews these causes and discusses remedies where available.
A multifaceted quantitative index for sustainability assessment of groundwater management: application for aquifers around Iran
Published in Water International, 2022
Bahador Zarei, Esmaeel Parizi, Seiyed Mossa Hosseini, Behzad Ataie-Ashtiani
Motivated by the accessibility and affordability of pumping technology, continuing increases in water demands along with decreases in precipitation and surface flows and an overreliance on groundwater resources have led to a groundwater depletion problem with adverse repercussions on dependent communities (Doell et al., 2014; Ghadimi & Ketabchi, 2019). Major hotspots of depletion were observed in arid and semi-arid parts of the world, including north-west India, north-east China, north-east Pakistan, the High Plains and California Central Valley aquifers in the United States, central Iran, central Yemen, and southern Spain (Jakeman et al., 2016). About 67% of the groundwater used for global consumption (about 686 km3/year) is extracted in countries characterized by climatic aridity, such as India (about 251 km3/year, or 36.6%), China (about 112 km3/year, or 16.3%), the United States (about 112 km3/year, or 16.3%), Pakistan (about 64 km3/year, or 9.3%), Iran (about 60 km3/year, or 8.7%), Bangladesh (about 35 km3/year, or 5.1%), Mexico (about 29 km3/year, or 4.2%) and Saudi Arabia (about 23 km3/year, or 3.4%) (Gleeson et al., 2012; Trichakis et al., 2016).
Climate change in the human environment: Indicators and impacts from the Fourth National Climate Assessment
Published in Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 2021
Laura E. Stevens, Thomas K. Maycock, Brooke C. Stewart
Increasing temperatures also result in increased water consumption, particularly in the agriculture sector. Irrigated agriculture is one of the Nation’s main consumers of water, with irrigation being used for crop production in most of the West (Gowda et al. 2018) and the northern part of the Midwest, where coarse soils of lower water-holding capacity are more vulnerable to drying (Angel et al. 2018). Rising temperatures combined with insufficient precipitation and the resulting increases in irrigation requirements will likely result in substantial groundwater depletion in the coming decades (Döll 2009). Groundwater currently provides more than 40% of the water used for agriculture (irrigation and livestock), as well as for domestic water supplies across the United States (Lall et al. 2018). In many locations, groundwater is being depleted due to increased pumping during dry spells and concentrated demands in urban areas (Russo and Lall 2017). The depletion of groundwater exacerbates drought risk, as the ability to meet water needs is diminished (Lall et al. 2018).
Assessing the economic impact of a low-cost water-saving irrigation technology in Indian Punjab: the tensiometer
Published in Water International, 2018
Kamal Vatta, R. S. Sidhu, Upmanu Lall, P. S. Birthal, Garima Taneja, Baljinder Kaur, Naresh Devineni, Charlotte MacAlister
Table 7 presents the stream of benefits of the use of tensiometers for irrigation scheduling in terms of savings in water and power, and the resultant economic benefits. By 2025, tensiometers are expected to be used for irrigation scheduling on 0.85 million ha of area under paddy in Punjab. Over the period 2010–2025, it would result in cumulative savings of 0.67 million ha m of water and 1516 million kWh of electric power. In terms of economic benefits, the net present value of the adoption of tensiometers on 30% of the paddy area would generate a cumulative surplus of US$ 459 million. The internal rate of return is also quite attractive, at 136%. These findings suggest that sensor-based irrigation management is an economically feasible option to arrest the rapid rate of groundwater depletion.