Abstract
AbstractUnsustainable depletion of aquifer storage and diversion of groundwater from downstream users continue to be serious problems, even though their adverse effects are widely recognized. Groundwater depletion involves interactions between economically motivated pumping decisions and physical constraints. Here, we investigate these interactions by using optimal control techniques to describe the pumping decisions of economic agents who share an aquifer. Our approach relies on a multi‐scale description of unconfined groundwater flow, applied to a computational experiment that illustrates some important impacts of aquifer development. We show that cooperative groundwater management can provide higher economic benefits, with less storage depletion, than an uncooperative alternative. However, demand for water still drives pumping decisions, even when users cooperate. In many aquifers the benefits of pumping are necessarily accompanied by a reduction in aquifer outflow and by depletion of the groundwater reserve, for both cooperative and uncooperative management. These benefits decrease significantly when pumping is limited by well yield constraints or when the diversion of aquifer outflow is restricted. Our overall analysis emphasizes the importance of viewing aquifer management as part of a larger resource allocation problem that considers the conflicting needs of well operators, downstream users, and future consumers of the resource.
Highlights
The depletion of groundwater resources is a widespread phenomenon that can jeopardize both water and food security by making groundwater less accessible, degrading water quality, reducing surface water flow, and compromising the buffering capacity provided by groundwater reserves (Aeschbach-Hertig & Gleeson, 2012)
We show that cooperative groundwater management can provide higher economic benefits, with less storage depletion, than an uncooperative alternative
The optimization constraints are derived from our multi-scale groundwater model and from optional conditions imposed on aquifer outflows
Summary
The depletion of groundwater resources is a widespread phenomenon that can jeopardize both water and food security by making groundwater less accessible, degrading water quality, reducing surface water flow, and compromising the buffering capacity provided by groundwater reserves (Aeschbach-Hertig & Gleeson, 2012). Undesirable depletion occurs despite knowledge of the problem among water users and despite evidence that effective management and cooperation can reduce the adverse effects of exploitation (Madani & Dinar, 2012b; Ostrom, 1990). These research questions address groundwater depletion issues that are long-standing but have largely remained unresolved, at least in any quantitative sense. Can cooperation among the aquifer users increase the benefits and reduce the adverse impacts of pumping? Quantitative answers to these questions can provide useful insight about how depletion occurs and how it might be reduced
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