“…In shallow aquifers, negative or negligible recharge is largely driven by groundwater supported evapotranspiration, especially in summer months and during dry periods [Yeh and Eltahir, 2005a,b;Yeh and Famiglietti, 2009;Szilagyi et al, 2013;Koirala et al, 2014]. Scanlon et al [2003] found that in semiarid to arid regions, the vadose zone is only influenced by surface climate forcings to a depth of about 3 m. Capillary rise, which we term negative recharge, beneath this depth is the dominant subsurface moisture flux [Coudrain-Ribstein et al, 1998;Walvoord et al, 2002;De Vries and Simmers, 2002;Scanlon et al, 2003;Walvoord and Scanlon, 2004]. Aquifer systems undergoing Overstressed conditions may trigger or exacerbate land subsidence [Galloway and Riley, 1999;Bawden et al, 2001;Konikow and Kendy, 2005], ecosystem habitat destruction [Stromberg et al, 1996;Gleeson et al, 2012] and aquifer compaction [Galloway et al, 1998;Konikow and Kendy, 2005] that limit future aquifer productivity and recharge potential.…”