Groundwater Connections and Sustainability in Social‐Ecological Systems

Abstract

Groundwater resources are connected with social, economic, ecological, and Earth systems. We introduce the framing of groundwater-connected systems to better represent the nature and complexity of these connections in data collection, scientific investigations, governance and management approaches, and groundwater education. Groundwater-connected systems are social, economic, ecological, and Earth systems that interact with groundwater, such as irrigated agriculture, groundwater-dependent ecosystems, and cultural relationships to groundwater expressions such as springs and rivers. Groundwater-connected systems form social-ecological systems with complex behaviors such as feedbacks, nonlinear processes, multiple stable system states, and path dependency. These complex behaviors are only visible through this integrated system framing and are not endogenous properties of physical groundwater systems. The framing is syncretic as it aims to provide a common conceptual foundation for the growing disciplines of socio-hydrogeology, eco-hydrogeology, groundwater governance, and hydro-social groundwater analysis. The framing also facilitates greater alignment between the groundwater sustainability discourse and emerging sustainability concepts and principles. Aligning with these concepts and principles presents groundwater sustainability as more than a physical state to be reached; and argues that place-based and multifaceted goals, values, justice, knowledge systems, governance, and management must continually be integrated to maintain groundwater's social, ecological, and Earth system functions. The groundwater-connected systems framing can underpin a broad, methodologically pluralistic, and community-driven new wave of data collection and analysis, research, governance, management, and education. These developments, together, can invigorate efforts to foster sustainable groundwater futures in the complex systems groundwater is embedded within.

Quantifying Groundwater's Contribution to Regional Environmental‐Flows in Diverse Hydrologic Landscapes

“…Despite groundwater being critical to a myriad of aquatic ecosystems, and broadly impacted by human developments, groundwater contributions to streamflow have not been directly considered or quantified in the current environmental‐flows literature (de Villiers et al., 2008). Environmental‐flows studies have, so far, focused on surface water alterations such as dams, impoundments, and stream‐dependent water diversions (Poff & Zimmerman, 2010), even though the role of groundwater in ecosystem maintenance is long understood at local and regional scales (Barlow & Leake, 2012; Huggins et al., 2023; Konikow & Kendy, 2005; Scanlon et al., 2023). Like other hydrologic systems, groundwater resources are stressed due to growing human demands.…”

GroMoPo: A Groundwater Model Portal for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) Modeling

“…For researchers outside the groundwater community, GroMoPo would provide a community-curated platform to find models and groundwater information for specific regions under investigation, which would allow them to better incorporate local hydrogeological conditions into their work. For example, ecologists working on groundwater-dependent ecosystems may require information about local groundwater conditions and sources, and by linking these studies to models through GroMoPo we can strengthen the connections between groundwater science and other disciplines in both the physical and social sciences (Huggins et al 2023).…”

GroMoPo: A Groundwater Model Portal for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) modeling

“…For researchers outside the groundwater community, GroMoPo would provide a community-curated platform to find models and groundwater information for specific regions under investigation, which would allow them to better incorporate local hydrogeological conditions into their work. For example, ecologists working on groundwaterdependent ecosystems may require information about local groundwater conditions and sources, and by linking these studies to models through GroMoPo we can elevate the diverse connection between groundwater science and other disciplines in both the physical and social sciences (Huggins et al, 2023).…”