Abstract
Groundwater monitoring and data is key for keeping groundwater use within planetary boundaries. The unmeasured and the unsustainable use of this ‘hidden’ resource poses great sustainability challenges especially impacting low-income countries with poor groundwater governance. However, many groundwater monitoring systems in LMICs do not share data openly and face challenges for financing repair and maintenance of costly telemetric loggers and dashboard systems. This study, therefore, provides an overview and evaluations three different approaches for digital groundwater monitoring and data sharing for informing decision makers on sustainable groundwater management practices. Our work builds on and optimizes the on-going groundwater data collection in Nepal carried out by the Ground Water Resources Development Board – a key partner in this project. Three different digital approaches were experimented from 2020-2021 in the Banke and Bardiya districts of Nepal to recommend a pragmatic and sustainable approach for data collection and management. The three systems included: First, data collection with tablets using ODK based form. Second, digital data collection using a diver with USB data logger. Third, telemetric digital data collection that uploads the data via mobile network and cloud-based storage. Upon completion of the pilot, and careful examination of various costs (operational, maintenance, training), and other carefully identified features the data collection using the ODK based tool was recommended for further scaling and collected data from 2020-present. Furthermore, to complement the data collection using the tablets, the database was designed, and data visualized via an open-source dashboard for efficient data dissemination. The generated data and dashboard has been instrumental in supporting inter-ministerial discussions and interactions to support a transition towards sustainable groundwater management in Nepal.  
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