Innovative Approaches to Collaborative Groundwater Governance in the United States: Case Studies from Three High-Growth Regions in the Sun Belt

Abstract

Groundwater is an increasingly important source of freshwater, especially where surface water resources are fully or over-allocated or becoming less reliable due to climate change. Groundwater reliance has created new challenges for sustainable management. This article examines how regional groundwater users coordinate and collaborate to manage shared groundwater resources, including attention to what drives collaboration. To identify and illustrate these facets, this article examines three geographically diverse cases of groundwater governance and management from the United States Sun Belt: Orange County Water District in southern California; Prescott Active Management Area in north-central Arizona; and the Central Florida Water Initiative in central Florida. These regions have different surface water laws, groundwater allocation and management laws and regulations, demographics, economics, topographies, and climate. These cases were selected because the Sun Belt faces similar pressures on groundwater due to historical and projected population growth and limited availability of usable surface water supplies. Collectively, they demonstrate groundwater governance trends in the United States, and illustrate distinctive features of regional groundwater management strategies. Our research shows how geophysical realities and state-level legislation have enabled and/or stimulated regions to develop groundwater management plans and strategies to address the specific issues associated with their groundwater resources. We find that litigation involvement and avoidance, along with the need to finance projects, are additional drivers of regional collaboration to manage groundwater. This case study underscores the importance of regionally coordinated and sustained efforts to address serious groundwater utilization challenges faced by the regions studied and around the world.

Challenges and opportunities at the nexus of energy, water, and food: A perspective from the southwest United States

“…The problem is further exacerbated by policy isolation where integrated use of resources may not be the primary consideration. [38][39][40][41][42][43] Understanding and optimizing the nexus of energy, water, and food is therefore at an acute stage in the U.S. funding and research-supporting agencies, such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), have initiated programs designed to produce an integrated approach to addressing these challenges. Recent workshops conducted on behalf of these agencies have shaped our perspective in this review.…”

Invisible water: the importance of good groundwater governance and management

“…15 Case study analysis is useful to identifying good practices and determining trends. 16,17 While a survey or review of groundwater governance case studies is beyond the scope of this perspective article, a look at the case study section of the released volume, Advances in Groundwater Governance, 18 is instructive. In addition to a chapter by this author and others focusing on the US, 19 the section includes seven case studies from across the globe.…”

Critical Issues Affecting Groundwater Quality Governance and Management in the United States

“…Problems associated with groundwater quality are particularly difficult to mitigate due to the common-pool nature of groundwater. Once contamination occurs in groundwater, it is difficult to characterize [19] and to remediate [16,45]. Theesfeld [14] identified a set of characteristics that make groundwater difficult to manage.…”

“…Experts agree that study of groundwater governance institutions and policies is needed to identify models for good groundwater governance [13]. In recent years, groundwater governance has received growing attention in scholarly work [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. Notable efforts involving government officials, academics, and other expert practitioners include the Global Environmental Facility-funded project "Groundwater Governance: A Global Framework for Action" [21], and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Water Governance Initiative, which focuses on governance on all types of water [22].…”

“…In the U.S., research related to groundwater governance and management in the 50 U.S. states is limited. Other analyses have focused on the watershed scale e.g., [23][24][25][26][27], the regional scale [19,28,29], or internationally-shared watersheds e.g., [18,20,[30][31][32]. Though some research has been conducted on state-level groundwater governance and management in the U.S. [33][34][35][36], few researchers have examined water governance and management at the state level, despite the fact that most governance strategies and management actions are focused at this level.…”