Maximizing on-farm groundwater recharge with surface reservoir releases: a planning approach and case study in California, USA

Gailey, Robert M.; Fogg, Graham E.; Lund, Jay R.; Medellín–Azuara, Josué

doi:10.1007/s10040-019-01936-x

Cited by 16 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Monitoring soil physical-biogeochemical processes during MAR has been extensively studied (Danfoura & Gurdak, 2016;Ganot et al, 2018;Gorski et al, 2019;Greskowiak et al, 2005;McNab et al, 2009;Rodríguez-Escales et al, 2020;Schmidt et al, 2011;Vandenbohede et al, 2013); however, since Ag-MAR is a relatively new technique in the MAR toolbox, to date only a few studies have monitored these processes in actual agricultural fields during Ag-MAR (Bachand et al, 2014(Bachand et al, , 2016(Bachand et al, , 2019Dahlke et al, 2018;Dokoozlian et al, 1987). Most Ag-MAR studies have focused on developing soil suitability guidelines (O'Geen et al, 2015), regionalscale aquifer storage estimations (Scanlon et al, 2016), water availability analysis (Kocis & Dahlke, 2017), hydro-economic analysis (Gailey et al, 2019), and benefits evaluation using numerical modeling (Kourakos et al, 2019;Niswonger et al, 2017). Among the few Ag-MAR field studies that exist, the soil aeration status, which may impair the implementation of future Ag-MAR projects, has been largely neglected.…”

Section: Core Ideasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Natural and forced soil aeration during agricultural managed aquifer recharge

Ganot

Dahlke

2021

Vadose Zone Journal

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One of the suggested approaches to mitigate the chronic groundwater depletion in California is agricultural managed aquifer recharge (Ag-MAR), in which farmland is flooded using excess surface water in order to recharge the underlying aquifer. Successful implementation of Ag-MAR projects requires careful estimation of the soil aeration status, as prolonged saturated conditions in the rhizosphere can damage crops due to O 2 deficiency. We studied the soil aeration status under almond [Prunus dulcis (Mill.) D.A. Webb] trees and cover crops during Ag-MAR at three sites differing in drainage properties. Water application included several cycles (2-7) and flooding durations (27-63 h) that varied according to the soil infiltration capacity at each site. We used O 2 and redox potential as soil aeration quantifiers to test the impact of forced aeration by air-injection compared with natural soil aeration. Results suggest an average increase of up to 2% O 2 at one site, whereas mixed impact was observed at the two other sites. Additionally, no impact on crop yield was observed for one growing season. Results further suggest that natural aeration can support crop O 2 demand during Ag-MAR if flooding duration is controlled according to O 2 depletion rates.In large Ag-MAR projects, forced aeration might be useful to improve local zones of O 2 deficiency, which are expected to occur due to topographic irregularities and spatial variability of drainage properties.

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Section: Core Ideasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Natural and forced soil aeration during agricultural managed aquifer recharge

Ganot

Dahlke

2021

Vadose Zone Journal

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“…7 Additional changes in groundwater storage (annual) due to future inflow volume and seasonality changes for RCP4.5 (a) and RCP8.5 (b) compared with historical (averaged over three future periods). The barplot represents average changes, and the whiskers show the interannual variability (standard deviation) can be a promising solution to mitigate the effect of climate change on groundwater storage (Kocis and Dahlke 2017; Gailey et al 2019;Fogg et al 2018).…”

Section: Role Of Headwater Inflow Volume and Seasonality Shifts Under Future Climatementioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change impacts on groundwater storage in the Central Valley, California

Alam

Gebremichael

et al. 2019

Climatic Change

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Groundwater plays a critical supporting role in agricultural production in the California Central Valley (CV). Recent prolonged droughts (notably 2007-2009 and 2012-2016) caused dramatic depletion of groundwater, indicating the susceptibility of the CV's water supply to climate change. To assess the impact of climate change on groundwater storage in the CV, we combined integrated surface water and groundwater models with climate projections from 20 global climate models and thereby explore the vulnerability of CV groundwater under two climate scenarios RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. We found that groundwater has been declining over the past decades (3 km 3 /year on average during 1950-2009). In the absence of future mitigating measures, this decline will continue, but at a higher rate due to climate change (31% and 39% increase in loss rate under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). The greatest loss (more than 80% of the total) will occur in the semi-arid southern Tulare region. We performed computational experiments to quantify the relative contribution of future crop water use and headwater inflows to total groundwater storage change. Our results show that, without management changes, continuing declines in future groundwater storage will mainly be attributable to ongoing overuse of groundwater. However, future changes in the seasonality of streamflow into the CV, (small) changes in annual inflows, and increased crop water use in a warmer climate will lead to 40-70% more annual groundwater losses than the current annual average, up to approximately 5 km 3 /year.

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“…The portion of this aquifer system lying in central and southern Sacramento County (Fig. 1) has been the subject of considerable work on the potential for managed aquifer recharge, particularly with respect to wet-season high-magnitude flows in the upstream reservoir and river system (Gailey et al 2019;Maples et al 2019). Although this part of the aquifer system generally is not considered to be in serious overdraft, the portion lying largely south of the American River and extending underneath the Cosumnes River has been sufficiently depleted in groundwater storage to pose problems for the endangered fall run of the Chinook salmon in the Cosumnes River due to lack of groundwater-driven baseflow (Fleckenstein et al 2006;Niswonger and Fogg 2008).…”

Section: Hydrologic Setting and Folsom Reservoirmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, in the part of the aquifer system lying between the American and Cosumnes Rivers and east of the Sacramento River (Fig. 1), enough groundwater storage depletion has occurred to provide nearly enough space for subsurface water storage as the storage capacity of Folsom Lake itself (Gailey et al 2019). In other words, the conditions in this American-Cosumnes basin system are excellent for augmenting the total system storage by an amount equivalent to adding another Folsom Lake.…”

Section: Hydrologic Setting and Folsom Reservoirmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, those studies focused on and identified the amount of available water at the large watershed scale and based on historical river flows and water allocation policies. Gailey et al (2019) and Maples et al (2019) focused on the groundwater side of the storage problem and showed that the American-Cosumnes groundwater basin of California could accommodate an average of at least 333 million cubic meter per year (mcm/year) (270,000 acre-ft/year) of recharge through off-season flooding of agricultural lands and geologically strategic locations. This study explored the potential role of surface reservoir reoperation for increasing water availability for MAR in the American-Cosumnes Basin.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Surface Reservoir Reoperation for Managed Aquifer Recharge: Folsom Reservoir System

Goharian

Azizipour

Sandoval-Soils

et al. 2020

J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage.

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As is much of the world, California increasingly is challenged by water scarcity. A recent multiyear drought depleted surface reservoir and groundwater storage in many places of the state. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), passed in 2014, promises sustainable groundwater management in California and suggests managed aquifer recharge (MAR) as one of the key practices to eliminate groundwater overdraft by groundwater sustainability agencies. Questions remain, however, about the amount of water available for MAR. Conjunctive management provides the opportunity to modify reservoir operations and enhance recharge long before any drought occurs. However, the amount by which reoperation of surface reservoirs can increase the available water for MAR has not been thoroughly investigated. Folsom reservoir is operated to meet a variety of objectives, including flood control, water supply, hydropower, and environmental flow. The inclusion of water discharge for groundwater recharge adds another objective for the operation of the reservoir and complicates the decision-making. Various management strategies were developed and applied to evaluate performance of the system during a historical period, and a new objective was added to maximize the available water for recharge from Folsom reservoir. Although the reoperation strategy offers additional storage in the system and increases the expected value of recharge from 280 to 430 million cubic meter (mcm) per year, trade-offs between different objectives showed that new operating rules perform quite satisfactorily, with nonsignificant deficits and violations of old objectives.

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Maximizing on-farm groundwater recharge with surface reservoir releases: a planning approach and case study in California, USA

Cited by 16 publications

References 42 publications

Natural and forced soil aeration during agricultural managed aquifer recharge

Natural and forced soil aeration during agricultural managed aquifer recharge

Climate change impacts on groundwater storage in the Central Valley, California

Surface Reservoir Reoperation for Managed Aquifer Recharge: Folsom Reservoir System

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