Researchers at the Sustainable Water Resources Program at the University of Texas examined the country’s two major aquifers – one in the Great Plains and another beneath California’s Central Valley – and predicted that a third of the southern Great Plains will tap out its water reserves in the next three decades. The study, published in May in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also found that cutting back on water withdrawals could extend the reserves’ lifespan, but it would not lead to sustainable management of the groundwater.
While depletion of groundwater in these areas has been widely acknowledged, the researchers said the tools used in their new study provide a more sophisticated, in-depth look at how the amount of water the reserves hold changes with time, location and regional climate patterns and could provide fodder for improvements in local water management.