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Science to Empower: Leveraging groundwater-level modeling for domestic water security in California

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Author(s)

CCESL

By Linda Mendez Barrientos

Article  •
Public Good Grant  •
A simple cross-sectional diagram illustrating the water cycle processes affecting groundwater. It shows precipitation falling onto the land surface, with water infiltrating into the soil through the vadose zone down to the saturated zone below the water table. Some water runs off into a nearby stream. Labels identify key elements: Precipitation, Infiltration, Runoff, Vadose zone, Saturated zone, Water Table, and Stream. A tree is shown on the land surface, demonstrating vegetation's role in the system.

In collaboration with the Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP), we set out to answer how the California groundwater sustainability reform is shaping the distribution of environmental benefits and burdens across diverse groups. We used locally developed groundwater sustainability plans, submitted to the Department of Water Resources for approval, to model how the sustainability metrics proposed by plans would affect domestic and public supply wells in the Central Valley of California. Thanks to this research project, RCAP partners used this information to project future priorities and specific disadvantaged communities, who rely on these domestic and public supply wells, that may need their assistance.