Groundwater Management Districts Research Articles

Characterization of water use and water balance for the croplands of Kansas using satellite, climate, and irrigation data

Kansas is one of the most productive agricultural states in the United States, where agricultural irrigation is a primary user of underground and surface water. Because of low precipitation and declining groundwater levels in western and central Kansas, sustainable management of irrigation water resources is a critical issue in the agricultural productivity of the state. The objective of this study is to analyze and characterize the water use and water balance in the croplands of Kansas using satellite observations, meteorological data, and in situ irrigation water use records. We used actual evapotranspiration (ETa), precipitation, soil moisture, and irrigation water use to calculate water balance for Kansas in 2015 at scales of counties, climatic divisions, and groundwater management districts (GMD). The Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance model was implemented to estimate 30-m resolution ETa. Results showed that the seasonal (May – September) precipitation, soil water storage change, and ETa are 528 mm, 80 mm, and 555 mm, respectively, on average of all croplands in the state. The annual net irrigation water consumption was 293 mm for irrigated croplands, indicating that irrigation water constitutes an substantial portion of the water supply in the state. The total volumetric irrigation water use was 3.24 km3 for all croplands within five GMDs in western and south-central Kansas, while only 0.38 km3 was outside of GMDs. The multiple regression models of ETa against precipitation and irrigation water use were statistically significant with R2 values of 0.71 and 0.87, respectively, at county and climate division scales. Regression models also indicated a higher rate of ETa response to irrigation water use than that to precipitation. Our study demonstrated the spatial patterns of crop water use and water balance in Kansas, which could provide useful information for management of irrigation agriculture and water resources for the state.

Evaluation of Data Needs for Assessments of Aquifers Supporting Irrigated Agriculture

AbstractOne of the primary means of addressing the depletion of aquifers supporting irrigated agriculture is to reduce pumping. In this work, we address the key question of how much data is needed to reliably predict the impact of pumping reductions. Previous studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of a simple water balance‐based approach for predicting the near‐term impact of changes in total pumping on changes in average water levels for areas ranging in size from 256 to 21,600 km2 in the High Plains aquifer (HPA) in the state of Kansas in the central U.S. This method shows considerable promise as a management tool in the Kansas HPA and potentially other highly stressed aquifers. However, one characteristic that sets the Kansas HPA apart from many other aquifers is an abundance of data on both water levels, from a decades‐old annual water level measurement program, and annual pumping volumes, due to reporting requirements and regulatory oversight. Most regions will have considerably less information. This study investigates the impact of more limited data availability through random subsampling of the water level and water use data sets from Groundwater Management District 4 (GMD4) in northwest Kansas and GMD5 in south‐central Kansas. The results indicate that accurate estimates of net inflow and specific yield, the key parameters needed to predict near‐term aquifer responses to proposed pumping reductions, can be obtained with much sparser water level and water use data than are available in the Kansas HPA, as long as the data are not systematically biased.

Unprecedented Drought Challenges for Texas Water Resources in a Changing Climate: What Do Researchers and Stakeholders Need to Know?

AbstractLong‐range water planning is complicated by factors that are rapidly changing in the 21st century, including climate, population, and water use. Here, we analyze climate factors and drought projections for Texas as an example of a diverse society straddling an aridity gradient to examine how the projections can best serve water stakeholder needs. We find that climate models are robust in projecting drying of summer‐season soil moisture and decreasing reservoir supplies for both the eastern and western portions of Texas during the 21st century. Further, projections indicate drier conditions during the latter half of the 21st century than even the most arid centuries of the last 1,000 years that included megadroughts. To illustrate how accounting for drought nonstationarity may increase water resiliency, we consider generalized case studies involving four key stakeholder groups: agricultural producers, large surface water suppliers, small groundwater management districts, and regional water planning districts. We also examine an example of customized climate information being used as input to long‐range water planning. We find that while stakeholders value the quantitative capability of climate model outputs, more specific climate‐related information better supports resilience planning across multiple stakeholder groups. New suites of tools could provide necessary capacity for both short‐ and long‐term, stakeholder‐specific adaptive planning.

Polycentricity and the Hollow State: Exploring Shared Personnel as a Source of Connectivity in Fragmented Urban Systems

The Ecology of Games (EoG) theory couples institutional rational choice with social network theory, articulating how transaction costs, social capital, and collective action dilemmas shape networks and network outcomes in polycentric governance systems. EoG literature has often focused on social–relational ties across organizational boundaries. However, jurisdictional fragmentation and increased reliance on private contractors in local public service delivery foster another source of network connectivity—shared personnel who work for multiple service providers. Drawing upon novel data of organizational personnel from more than 500 special purpose entities responsible for delivering drinking water to local neighborhoods in the Houston metro area in the state of Texas (United States), we examine how managerial, technical, and financial service delivery personnel connect otherwise independent organizations. We find that districts regulated by a common groundwater management agency and districts which contract with one another are both more likely to share technical and managerial personnel. By studying special districts that have overlapping personnel, we broaden the scope of the EoG framework to include additional layers of governance network complexity. As individual bureaucrats and service professionals play a key role in information transfer and innovation diffusion across organizations, shared personnel networks merit consideration as a mechanism for coordination and collective problem solving in fragmented urban systems.

Conserving the Ogallala Aquifer in southwestern Kansas: from the wells to people, a holistic coupled natural–human model

Abstract. The impact of water policy on conserving the Ogallala Aquifer in Groundwater Management District 3 (GMD3) in southwestern Kansas is analyzed using a system-level theoretical approach integrating agricultural water and land use patterns, changing climate, economic trends, and population dynamics. In so doing, we (1) model the current hyper-extractive coupled natural–human (CNH) system, (2) forecast outcomes of policy scenarios transitioning the current groundwater-based economic system toward more sustainable paths for the social, economic, and natural components of the integrated system, and (3) develop public policy options for enhanced conservation while minimizing the economic costs for the region's communities. The findings corroborate previous studies showing that conservation often leads initially to an expansion of irrigation activities. However, we also find that the expanded presence of irrigated acreage reduces the impact of an increasingly drier climate on the region's economy and creates greater long-term stability in the farming sector along with increased employment and population in the region. On the negative side, conservation lowers the net present value of farmers' current investments and there is not a policy scenario that achieves a truly sustainable solution as defined by Peter H. Gleick. This study reinforces the salience of interdisciplinary linked CNH models to provide policy prescriptions to untangle and address significant environmental policy issues.

Assessing Irrigation Aquifer Depletion: Introduction

Assessing Irrigation Aquifer Depletion: Introduction

Legal Challenges in Government Imposition of Water Conservation: The Kansas Example

This article deals with legal challenges in conserving water in the United States, using Kansas as an example. The focus is on one aspect of American water allocation law—the extent to which a state can force reductions in pumping by holders of water rights. It explains the hybrid nature of water rights, which on the one hand are “real property rights,” and yet on the other hand they are viewed as rights only to use water and not to own the water itself. Because they are a kind of property right, they are protected by the fifth amendment to the U.S. Constitution against “takings” by the government without compensation. The question becomes: to what extent, then, can states demand reductions in pumping without having to pay compensation? The answer is difficult for both water right holders and government officials to predict. The law of groundwater rights in Kansas illustrates the problem. The article describes the Kansas law in the context of other states on this issue, including the historic changes in Kansas' water law doctrines, water management under the appropriation doctrine, the public trust doctrine, groundwater management districts, and intensive groundwater use control areas, as well as recent attempts to foster voluntary actions by water right holders that avoid government imposition of restrictions. Questions remain in Kansas and elsewhere about where the line can be drawn, between acceptable government restrictions and unacceptable takings of property. Future drought caused by climate change will focus even more attention on this question.

Estimation of excess water use in irrigated agriculture: A Data Envelopment Analysis approach

Overpumping of the Ogallala Aquifer in western Kansas due to expansion of irrigated agriculture is believed to have resulted in reductions in water storage volumes and drops in the water table in several regions. It is widely agreed upon that water demand should be reduced through increases in water use efficiency to make irrigated agriculture in the region more sustainable. The existence of several terms related to the efficiency with which irrigation water is used, however, may be hampering the development of appropriate water conservation policies. In particular, while there has been an emphasis on increasing water application efficiencies of irrigation systems, little empirical testing has been done on the effects of such changes on water use efficiency. The primary purpose of this paper is to determine the impacts of irrigation system type, as well as other variables, on irrigation water use efficiency for a sample of 43 irrigators in western Kansas between 1992 and 1999. The use of panel data permits both cross-sectional and temporal comparisons, with the latter being particularly relevant as there was a large-scale shift in irrigation system types during the study period. The method used to quantify water use efficiency or, more specifically, excess irrigation water used, is Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Based upon linear programming techniques, DEA creates a “best practice” production frontier based on the irrigators that produced their level of crop output with the least amount of water. What is implied is that those who are able to produce their output levels using the least amount of water are better water managers. These farms then serve as benchmarks against which the water use inefficiency of all other irrigators, or amount of “excess water” used, can be measured. The relationship between the magnitude of irrigation water excess, or reduction potentials, and irrigation system type and a number of other farm characteristics are then determined. A major finding of the study is that there is only a weak relationship between irrigation system type and the level of excess irrigation water used. In particular, flood irrigation systems are not clearly inefficient and management may play a significant role in the levels of water use efficiency that can be reached. Additional results indicate positive relationships between water excess and age of farmer, negative relationships between water excess and farm size, and differences in water excesses between farms located in different groundwater management districts.

From safe yield to sustainable development of water resources—the Kansas experience

This paper presents a synthesis of water sustainability issues from the hydrologic perspective. It shows that safe yield is a flawed concept and that sustainability is an idea that is broadly used but perhaps not well understood. In general, the sustainable yield of an aquifer must be considerably less than recharge if adequate amounts of water are to be available to sustain both the quantity and quality of streams, springs, wetlands, and ground-water-dependent ecosystems. To ensure sustainability, it is imperative that water limits be established based on hydrologic principles of mass balance. To establish water-use policies and planning horizons, the transition curves of aquifer systems from ground-water storage depletion to induced recharge of surface water need to be developed. Present-day numerical models are capable of generating such transition curves. Several idealized examples of aquifer systems show how this could be done. Because of the complexity of natural systems and the uncertainties in characterizing them, the current philosophy underlying sustainable management of water resources is based on the interconnected systems approach and on adaptive management. Examples of water-resources management from Kansas illustrate some of these concepts in a real-world setting. Some of the hallmarks of Kansas water management are the formation of local ground-water management districts, the adoption of minimum streamflow standards, the use of modified safe-yield policies in some districts, the implementation of integrated resource planning by the City of Wichita, and the subbasin water-resources management program in potential problem areas. These are all appropriate steps toward sustainable development. The Kansas examples show that local decision-making is the best way to fully account for local variability in water management. However, it is imperative that public education and involvement be encouraged, so that system complexities and constraints are better understood and overly simplistic solutions avoided.

The origin and evolution of safe-yield policies in the Kansas groundwater management districts

The management of groundwater resources in Kansas continues to evolve. Declines in theHigh Plains aquifer led to the establishment of groundwater management districts in themid-1970s and reduced streamflows prompted the enactment of minimum desirable streamflowstandards in the mid-1980s. Nonetheless, groundwater levels and streamflows continued todecline, although at reduced rates compared to premid-1980s rates. As a result, “safe-yield”policies were revised to take into account natural groundwater discharge in the form of streambaseflow. These policies, although a step in the right direction, are deficient in several ways.In addition to the need for more accurate recharge data, pumping-induced streamflow depletion,natural stream losses, and groundwater evapotranspiration need to be accounted for in therevised safe-yield policies. Furthermore, the choice of the 90% flow-duration statistic as ameasure of baseflow needs to be reevaluated, as it significantly underestimates mean baseflowestimated from baseflow separation computer programs; moreover, baseflow estimation needsto be refined and validated.

Modeling saltwater upconing in a freshwater aquifer in south-central Kansas

Abstract The Great Bend Prairie freshwater alluvial aquifer in south-central Kansas overlies a bedrock brine aquifer of Permian age. The continuous extraction of freshwater mainly for irrigation in this area has accelerated the upward movement of the saltwater, resulting in the deterioration of water quality. Predicting saltwater upconing is critical for maintaining a long-term supply of water of good quality to the Groundwater Management District No. 5. This paper uses a numerical model to predict the effect of saltwater upconing on the salinity of pumped water. A sensitivity analysis was conducted for estimating the effects of uncertainties in model parameters on the numerical results. The most important factors affecting the salinity of discharged water are found to be the location and nature of clay layers in the aquifer, the pumping rate, the location of the well screen, and the hydraulic conductivities of the medium. The effect of uncertainties in aquifer porosity and dispersivity on salinity is appreciable but not substantial, whereas that of recharge from precipitation in the study area is relatively insignificant. In addition, a numerical model based on the field conditions observed at the Siefkes site was constructed and calibrated to reproduce and project the variation of measured water levels and discharged groundwater concentration. Finally, a number of practical management recommendations based on this study are presented.

An interactive program for computer-aided map design, display, and query: EM apKGS2

EM apKGS2 is a user-friendly, PC-based electronic mapping tool for use in hydrogeologic exploration and appraisal. EM apKGS2 allows the analyst to construct maps interactively from data stored in a relational database, perform point-oriented spatial queries such as locating all wells within a specified radius, perform geographic overlays, and export the data to other programs for further analysis. EM apKGS2 runs under Microsoft R Windows ™ 3.1 and compatible operating systems. EM apKGS2 is a public domain program available from the Kansas Geological Survey. EM apKGS2 is the centerpiece of Wheat, the Windows-based Hydrogeologic Exploration and Appraisal Toolkit, a suite of user-friendly Microsoft R Windows ™ programs for natural resource exploration and management. The principal goals in development of Wheat have been ease of use, hardware independence, low cost, and end-user extensibility. Wheat's native data format is a Microsoft R Access R database. Wheat stores a feature's geographic coordinates as attributes so they can be accessed easily by the user. The Wheat programs are designed to be used in conjunction with other Microsoft R Windows ™ software to allow the natural resource scientist to perform work easily and effectively. Wheat and EM apKGS have been used at several of Kansas' Groundwater Management Districts and the Kansas Geological Survey on groundwater management operations, groundwater modeling projects, and geologic exploration projects.

Appropriation and water rights issues in the high plains Ogallala region

This research assesses the effectiveness of groundwater doctrine in eastern Colorado and western Kansas within the context of 330 irrigators' preferences for perceived changes in groundwater appropriations and variances in existing rules to best achieve the public interest. A survey of irrigators in six groundwater management districts reveals that attitudes conflict with several aspects of current appropriation doctrine. There is significant support for broad-based, uniform reductions in appropriations when groundwater becomes scarce rather than the “first in time, first in right” requirement in the prior appropriation doctrine. Many irrigators believe that past water-use efficiency should be a criteria factored into appropriation reduction polices. Most oppose the “use it or lose it” concept that requires specified levels of beneficial use to protect a water right, and irrigators oppose special exemptions to permit new wells to benefit the public interest in fully appropriated areas. Importantly, if irrigators' preferences were codified in the groundwater appropriations doctrines, more groundwater could be conserved.

Groundwater Management Institutions in Kansas

This paper deals with the management of groundwater in Kansas through the statutory mechanism of the groundwater management district (GMD). A description of the location of water in Kansas and of relevant Kansas law is followed by a short discussion of the history of the development of the law establishing GMD's and by a description of the location of these GMD's. The paper then describes the powers of GMD's, discusses how GMD's have used these statutory powers, and raises legal questions about these powers. Lastly, some innovative measures being taken by GMD's are discussed.

Adjustment preferences to groundwater depletion in the American high plains

This paper explores the adjustments that residents in one part of the High Plains prefer in coping with the depletion of the Ogallala aquifer. The authors identify 31 possible adjustment policies and report on public preferences, examining differences among socioeconomic groups and also the preferred governmental agencies to administer specific programs. Adjustments involving improved water use efficiency were most favored; those entailing financial incentives were least liked. The local groundwater management district was the preferred agency overall. Most significant differences in preference were between those in agribusiness and those outside agriculture.

Groundwater observation network design for the Kansas groundwater management districts, U.S.A.

Concerns about the efficiency and economic soundness of the Kansas groundwater monitoring program led to a systematic redesign of this network, a tentative phase of which is presented in this study. The objectives of this paper include monitoring of major aquifers within each groundwater management district at a spatially more uniform level of accuracy, elimination of redundant measurements and optimization of the information gained from each observation well. The theory of regionalized variables is employed to estimate the amount of spatial variability of the water table, on which the network design is based. This study shows that it is not practical to attempt to reduce the already existing level of uncertainty uniformly throughout the various districts; to do so would tremendously increase the cost of well monitoring, which is already very high. Assuming that the currently existing network is satisfactory for the State's objectives, a reduced network consisting of one well every 6.4 km is equally satisfactory. The reduced network yields district-wide maps that do not differ significantly from those produced using the present network and at the same time it reduces the already-existing network by 18–47%. Therefore, adoption of a rearranged square well network is recommended, which is reduced to a 6.4-km spacing to achieve both a uniform level of information about the water table and a minimum required accuracy.

Problems in the Use of the Public District for Ground-Water Management

GROUND-WATER management is becoming an increasingly important subject of public concern. And the method of organizing this management activity is currently in a state of legislative and judicial flux.' Various forms of organization are being contemplated or are being tried out. For example, the Oregon legislature recently passed a state ground-water management act giving the state engineer a wide range of management power.~ Texas, on the other hand, provides enabling legislation for people in local areas to organize ground-water management districts.3 In California public districts are in use,4 and the court reference procedure is used as a means for managing ground water by rationing in accordance with safe yield. 5 Because of this interest, it seems appropriate to examine certain problems relating to the public district as a form for organizing group action for groundwater management.