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Michael Kiparsky - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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concurrent governance processes of california s sustainable Groundwater Management act
Society & Natural Resources, 2020Co-Authors: Anita Milman, Michael KiparskyAbstract:California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) is a landmark policy that requires achievement of sustainability at the Groundwater basin level. In this policy review and analysis, we de...
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california Groundwater Management science policy interfaces and the legacies of artificial legal distinctions
Environmental Research Letters, 2019Co-Authors: David Owen, Thomas Harter, Alida Cantor, Nell Green Nylen, Michael KiparskyAbstract:California water law has traditionally treated Groundwater and surface water as separate resources. The 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) broke with this tradition by requiring Groundwater managers to avoid significant and unreasonable adverse impacts to beneficial uses of surface water. This paper considers the trajectory of this partial integration of science, law, and resource Management policy. Drawing on legal analysis and participatory workshops with subject area experts, we describe the challenges of reconciling the separate legal systems that grew out of an artificial legal distinction between different aspects of the same resource. Our analysis offers two main contributions. First, it demonstrates that laws that subdivide an interconnected resource can have legacy effects that linger long after lawmakers begin dismantling the artificial divides. Using SGMA as a case study, the article illustrates the complexities of reconciling law with science, showing that reconciliation is a process that does not end with updating statutes, or with any other single intervention. Second, we introduce a framework for evaluating the elements of an effort to reconcile law with scientific understanding, whether that reform effort involves Groundwater or some other resource. Applying that framework helps reveal where lingering legacy effects still need to be addressed. More generally, it reveals the need for literature addressing science-policy interactions to devote more attention to the multifaceted nature of law and policy reform. Much of that literature describes policy-making in broad and undifferentiated terms, often referring simply to 'the science-policy interface.' But as the SGMA case study illustrates, the complex and multi-layered nature of policy-making means that a successful reform effort may need to address many science-policy interfaces.
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Navigating Groundwater-Surface Water Interactions under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act
2018Co-Authors: Alida Cantor, Dave Owen, Thomas Harter, Nell Green Nylen, Michael KiparskyAbstract:Author(s): Cantor, Alida; Owen, Dave; Harter, Thomas; Green Nylen, Nell; Kiparsky, Michael | Abstract: California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), passed in 2014, recognizes and addresses connections between surface water and Groundwater. The statute is California’s first statewide law to explicitly reflect the fact that surface water and Groundwater are frequently interconnected and that Groundwater Management can impact Groundwater-dependent ecosystems, surface water flows, and the beneficial uses of those flows. As such, SGMA partially remedies the historically problematic practice of treating Groundwater and surface water as legally distinct resources. SGMA requires Groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs) to manage Groundwater to avoid six undesirable results, including significant and unreasonable adverse impacts on beneficial uses of surface water. While this aspect of SGMA is clearly important, significant uncertainties exist regarding how GSAs will actually define and achieve this goal. Addressing SGMA’s requirements for Groundwatersurface water interactions will be difficult. Defining the issues at stake in any given basin, let alone successfully balancing the range of uncertainties and potentially conflicting interests, will pose challenges for many GSAs. No clear, pre-defined formula exists to guide GSAs in determining what significant and unreasonable depletions of interconnected surface water will be, or whether planned actions will sufficiently avoid them. Yet they are required to do so. Many GSAs will face pressure to aggressively address impacts on surface water in their basin. Many will face equal or greater pressure not to draw the line. Nevertheless, it will fall to the GSAs to make a determination, and to defend it in their Groundwater sustainability plans (GSPs). Therefore, GSAs will likely take on some level of risk—of successful political opposition to their GSP, of succesful legal challenges to their GSP, of their GSP performing ineffectively, or of all of these outcomes. Given the aggressive timeline inherent to SGMA, addressing this risk early will be crucial for preserving Management options. Challenges and risk are not the whole story, however. The process of addressing Groundwater-surface water interactions also offers GSAs an opportunity to help communities and other stakeholders resolve, or avoid, difficult conflicts, and to do so in lasting ways. While California law has only recently begun to seriously address conflicts between surface and Groundwater uses, those conflicts have been occurring for decades, and in some places for over a century. SGMA, in other words, did not create conflict between Groundwater pumping and beneficial uses of surface water; instead it created an opportunity—as well as an obligation—to respond to those challenges. Embracing that opportunity will not be easy, but GSAs that take SGMA as an opportunity to resolve longstanding issues can do lasting good. The research presented here examines some of the legal and institutional questions that will inevitably arise as GSAs seek to address Groundwater-surface water interactions under SGMA. The core goal of this report is to help parties identify and address these questions, and ultimately to let GSAs and stakeholders manage Groundwater-surface water interactions proactively and effectively.
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the importance of institutional design for distributed local level governance of Groundwater the case of california s sustainable Groundwater Management act
Water, 2017Co-Authors: Michael Kiparsky, Anita Milman, Dave Owen, A T FisherAbstract:In many areas of the world, Groundwater resources are increasingly stressed, and unsustainable use has become common. Where existing mechanisms for governing Groundwater are ineffective or nonexistent, new ones need to be developed. Local level Groundwater governance provides an intriguing alternative to top-down models, with the promise of enabling Management to better match the diversity of physical and social conditions in Groundwater basins. One such example is emerging in California, USA, where new state law requires new local agencies to self-organize and act to achieve sustainable Groundwater Management. In this article, we draw on insights from research on common pool resource Management and natural resources governance to develop guidelines for institutional design for local Groundwater governance, grounded in California’s developing experience. We offer nine criteria that can be used as principles or standards in the evaluation of institutional design for local level Groundwater governance: scale, human capacity, funding, authority, independence, representation, participation, accountability, and transparency. We assert that local governance holds promise as an alternative to centralized governance in some settings but that its success will depend heavily on the details of its implementation. Further, for local implementation to achieve its promise, there remain important complementary roles for centralized governance. California’s developing experience with local level Groundwater Management in dozens of basins across the state provides a unique opportunity to test and assess the importance and influence of these criteria.
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unanswered questions for implementation of the sustainable Groundwater Management act
California Agriculture, 2016Co-Authors: Michael KiparskyAbstract:Outlook Unanswered questions for implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act Michael Kiparsky, Director, Wheeler Water Institute, Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, UC Berkeley School of Law A rig drills a new well in Merced County. In the foreground is a pressure relief structure for subsurface water pipes. Groundwater accounts for between one-third and two-thirds of California’s water use in a given year and serves as a lifeline when surface water runs low during drought. In part because of California’s historical lack of Groundwater use regulation, this crucial resource is threatened. In some areas, declining Groundwater levels have caused the land surface to subside at a rate of more than one inch per month, damaging roads, canals and pipelines. Falling water tables are driving a well-drilling race that threatens farms, communi- ties and ecosystems. To address the problem of chronic groundwa- ter overdraft, SGMA, adopted in 2014, declares a state policy of managing Groundwater sustainably, with sustainability defined as avoiding six specific undesirable results. These are “significant and unreasonable” (1) lowering of Groundwater levels, (2) reduction in Groundwater storage, (3) seawater intrusion, (4) water quality degradation, (5) land subsidence and (6) impacts on beneficial uses of interconnected surface waters. In concept, this forward-thinking framing aligns the requirements of the law with the im- pacts of unsustainable Groundwater use and the actions needed to address those impacts. To accomplish these objectives, SGMA relies primarily on local control, with an enforcement backstop provided by the State Water Resources Control Board. New local entities called groundwa- ter sustainability agencies (GSAs) will do the bulk of the work of implementing SGMA by developing, implementing and updating Groundwater sustain- ability plans (GSPs). A GSP provides the template for achieving sustainable Groundwater manage- ment in a GSA’s jurisdiction within 20 years. GSAs must be formed by 2017 and GSPs completed by 2020 or 2022. http://calag.ucanr.edu • OCTOBER–DECEMBER 2016 165 Leigh Bernacchi C alifornia is grappling with the implications of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), a visionary and potentially revolutionary law that could profoundly change the way water is managed in the state. The nature of the revolution, however, is not yet clear. Whether and how SGMA achieves its goals hinges on open questions about its implementation.
Ting Zhang - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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an integrated Groundwater Management mode based on control indexes of Groundwater quantity and level
Water Resources Management, 2013Co-Authors: Ping Feng, Wei Zhang, Ting ZhangAbstract:Groundwater is an important source of freshwater throughout the world. Due to over-exploitation of Groundwater over many years, a number of potential adverse hydrogeological problems have raised. To reduce such adverse effects, it is necessary to carry out strict Groundwater Management in over-exploited areas. In this study, quantity-level binary control Management mode has been developed in Tianjin. Initially, the Management is the key to determine control levels of Groundwater including the blue line levels (proper levels) and red line levels (warning levels), the blue line levels can be determined by the ground settlement recovery scenario, and the red line levels can be determined through planning Groundwater exploitation scenarios. By comparing the real-time observed Groundwater data with the blue levels and red levels the Management grade of Groundwater levels which are present, can thus be identified. Secondly, the corresponding Management strategies would be determined by the Management grade. On this basis reasonable Groundwater levels and mining schemes can be made. Finally, the water quota for each sector can be optimized and adjusted in real time according to the binary Groundwater Management methodology established in this study. Thus, the exploitation of Groundwater can be monitored and dynamically managed by the real-time monitoring levels and the sustainable utilization of Groundwater resources can be achieved. To achieve all the objectives mentioned above, it is necessary to provide a powerful tool through the utilization of a numerical model for Groundwater Management. Based on geological and hydrogeological conditions in Tianjin city, a three-dimensional numerical Groundwater flow model was established by coupling a one-dimensional soil consolidation model with MODFLOW model. Through calibration and verification, the model showed good simulation accuracy. It proved that the new Management mode can provide a scientific basis for Groundwater Management. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
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an integrated Groundwater Management mode based on control indexes of Groundwater quantity and level
Water Resources Management, 2013Co-Authors: Ping Feng, Wei Zhang, Ting ZhangAbstract:Groundwater is an important source of freshwater throughout the world. Due to over-exploitation of Groundwater over many years, a number of potential adverse hydrogeological problems have raised. To reduce such adverse effects, it is necessary to carry out strict Groundwater Management in over-exploited areas. In this study, quantity-level binary control Management mode has been developed in Tianjin. Initially, the Management is the key to determine control levels of Groundwater including the blue line levels (proper levels) and red line levels (warning levels), the blue line levels can be determined by the ground settlement recovery scenario, and the red line levels can be determined through planning Groundwater exploitation scenarios. By comparing the real-time observed Groundwater data with the blue levels and red levels the Management grade of Groundwater levels which are present, can thus be identified. Secondly, the corresponding Management strategies would be determined by the Management grade. On this basis reasonable Groundwater levels and mining schemes can be made. Finally, the water quota for each sector can be optimized and adjusted in real time according to the binary Groundwater Management methodology established in this study. Thus, the exploitation of Groundwater can be monitored and dynamically managed by the real-time monitoring levels and the sustainable utilization of Groundwater resources can be achieved. To achieve all the objectives mentioned above, it is necessary to provide a powerful tool through the utilization of a numerical model for Groundwater Management. Based on geological and hydrogeological conditions in Tianjin city, a three-dimensional numerical Groundwater flow model was established by coupling a one-dimensional soil consolidation model with MODFLOW model. Through calibration and verification, the model showed good simulation accuracy. It proved that the new Management mode can provide a scientific basis for Groundwater Management.
Didier Graillot - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Multiobjective fuzzy optimization for sustainable Groundwater Management using particle swarm optimization and analytic element method
Hydrological Processes, 2015Co-Authors: Shishir Gaur, Srinivasa K. Raju, Nagesh Kumar, Didier GraillotAbstract:Groundwater Management involves conflicting objectives as maximization of discharge contradicts the criteria of minimum pumping cost and minimum piping cost. In addition, available data contains uncertainties such as market fluctuations, variations in water levels of wells and variations of ground water policies. A fuzzy model is to be evolved to tackle the uncertainties and a multiobjective optimization is to be conducted to simultaneously satisfy the contradicting objectives. Towards this end, a multiobjective fuzzy optimization model is evolved. To get at the upper and lower bounds of the individual objectives, particle swam optimization (PSO) is adopted. The analytic element method (AEM) is employed to get at the operating potentiometric head. In this study, a multiobjective fuzzy optimization model considering three conflicting objectives is developed using PSO and AEM methods for obtaining a sustainable Groundwater Management policy. The developed model is applied to a case study and it is demonstrated that the compromise solution satisfies all the objectives with adequate levels of satisfaction. Sensitivity analysis is carried out varying the parameters and it is shown that the effect of any such variation is quite significant.
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Analytic Elements Method and Particle Swarm Optimization based Simulation-Optimization Model for Groundwater Management
Journal of Hydrology, 2011Co-Authors: Shishir Gaur, Bhagu Ram Chahar, Didier GraillotAbstract:This paper presents the application of the Analytic Element Method (AEM) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) based simulation-optimization model for the solution of Groundwater Management problems. The AEM-PSO model developed was applied to the Dore river basin, France to solve two Groundwater hydraulic Management problems: (1) maximum pumping from an aquifer, (2) minimum cost to develop the new pumping well system. Discharge as well as location of the pumping wells were taken as the decision variables. The influence of the piping length was examined in the total development cost for new wells. The optimal number of wells was also calculated by applying the model to different sets of wells. The constraints of the problem were identified with the help of water authority, stakeholders and officials. The AEM flow model was developed to facilitate the Management model in particular, as in each iteration optimization model calls a simulation model to calculate the values of Groundwater heads. The AEM-PSO model was found to be efficient in identifying the optimal location and discharge of the pumping wells. The penalty function approach was found to be valuable in PSO and also acceptable for Groundwater hydraulic Management problems.
Ping Feng - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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an integrated Groundwater Management mode based on control indexes of Groundwater quantity and level
Water Resources Management, 2013Co-Authors: Ping Feng, Wei Zhang, Ting ZhangAbstract:Groundwater is an important source of freshwater throughout the world. Due to over-exploitation of Groundwater over many years, a number of potential adverse hydrogeological problems have raised. To reduce such adverse effects, it is necessary to carry out strict Groundwater Management in over-exploited areas. In this study, quantity-level binary control Management mode has been developed in Tianjin. Initially, the Management is the key to determine control levels of Groundwater including the blue line levels (proper levels) and red line levels (warning levels), the blue line levels can be determined by the ground settlement recovery scenario, and the red line levels can be determined through planning Groundwater exploitation scenarios. By comparing the real-time observed Groundwater data with the blue levels and red levels the Management grade of Groundwater levels which are present, can thus be identified. Secondly, the corresponding Management strategies would be determined by the Management grade. On this basis reasonable Groundwater levels and mining schemes can be made. Finally, the water quota for each sector can be optimized and adjusted in real time according to the binary Groundwater Management methodology established in this study. Thus, the exploitation of Groundwater can be monitored and dynamically managed by the real-time monitoring levels and the sustainable utilization of Groundwater resources can be achieved. To achieve all the objectives mentioned above, it is necessary to provide a powerful tool through the utilization of a numerical model for Groundwater Management. Based on geological and hydrogeological conditions in Tianjin city, a three-dimensional numerical Groundwater flow model was established by coupling a one-dimensional soil consolidation model with MODFLOW model. Through calibration and verification, the model showed good simulation accuracy. It proved that the new Management mode can provide a scientific basis for Groundwater Management. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
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an integrated Groundwater Management mode based on control indexes of Groundwater quantity and level
Water Resources Management, 2013Co-Authors: Ping Feng, Wei Zhang, Ting ZhangAbstract:Groundwater is an important source of freshwater throughout the world. Due to over-exploitation of Groundwater over many years, a number of potential adverse hydrogeological problems have raised. To reduce such adverse effects, it is necessary to carry out strict Groundwater Management in over-exploited areas. In this study, quantity-level binary control Management mode has been developed in Tianjin. Initially, the Management is the key to determine control levels of Groundwater including the blue line levels (proper levels) and red line levels (warning levels), the blue line levels can be determined by the ground settlement recovery scenario, and the red line levels can be determined through planning Groundwater exploitation scenarios. By comparing the real-time observed Groundwater data with the blue levels and red levels the Management grade of Groundwater levels which are present, can thus be identified. Secondly, the corresponding Management strategies would be determined by the Management grade. On this basis reasonable Groundwater levels and mining schemes can be made. Finally, the water quota for each sector can be optimized and adjusted in real time according to the binary Groundwater Management methodology established in this study. Thus, the exploitation of Groundwater can be monitored and dynamically managed by the real-time monitoring levels and the sustainable utilization of Groundwater resources can be achieved. To achieve all the objectives mentioned above, it is necessary to provide a powerful tool through the utilization of a numerical model for Groundwater Management. Based on geological and hydrogeological conditions in Tianjin city, a three-dimensional numerical Groundwater flow model was established by coupling a one-dimensional soil consolidation model with MODFLOW model. Through calibration and verification, the model showed good simulation accuracy. It proved that the new Management mode can provide a scientific basis for Groundwater Management.
William W G Yeh - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Groundwater Management using model reduction via empirical orthogonal functions
Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 2008Co-Authors: James Mcphee, William W G YehAbstract:This work presents a novel approach for solving Groundwater Management problems with reduced computational effort. We replace a Groundwater flow model governed by a partial differential equation with a simple model governed by an ordinary differential equation. Model reduction is achieved with empirical orthogonal functions, i.e., principal components. Replacement of the full-scale model by a reduced model allows implementation of the embedding approach for optimal Groundwater Management. Comparing the results obtained with the full-scale simulation model, preliminary analyses show that the reduced model is able to reproduce head variations in the flow domain with good accuracy and, to a certain degree, the sensitivities of head with respect to pumping. A key advantage of the reduced model is that it is simple and easy to solve, and in many instances captures the dominating characteristics of the original model. In view of the many sources of uncertainty influencing Groundwater simulation, the accuracy provided by a reduced model may be sufficient for planning purposes. As with other examples of model reduction presented in recent research efforts, the methodology shows promise in presenting general trends, but does not eliminate the need for the original model when more detailed analyses are needed.
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multiobjective optimization for sustainable Groundwater Management in semiarid regions
Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 2004Co-Authors: James Mcphee, William W G YehAbstract:Increasing demands for water by competing users in semiarid regions pose new challenges for water resources managers. Decision makers must understand the interactions between surface water, Groundwater, and the environmental system. Additionally, the decisions made with regard to water transfer and allocation must take into consideration the diverse objectives that include water supply, cost efficiency, and ecosystem protection. The work presented herein demonstrates the use of Groundwater simulation and optimization to construct a decision support system (DSS) for solving a Groundwater Management problem associated with the Upper San Pedro River Basin, located in southeastern Arizona. The case is treated as a multiobjective optimization problem in which environmental objectives are explicitly considered by minimizing the magnitude and extent of drawdown within a prespecified region. The approach adopted uses the constraint method to derive the tradeoffs among three competing objectives. Once the proposed algorithm identifies a set of efficient solutions (alternatives), concepts borrowed from fuzzy set theory are applied to rank the alternatives and to assist decision makers in selecting a suitable policy among them, each of which is optimum with regard to its goal and the corresponding consequences.
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model reliability analysis and data sufficiency evaluation for sustainable Groundwater Management in semi arid regions
Critical Transitions in Water and Environmental Resources Management:, 2004Co-Authors: James Mcphee, William W G YehAbstract:Sustainable Groundwater resources Management involves meeting today’s needs while simultaneously considering the projected needs of future generations. This is inherently a multiobjective problem, and diverse stakeholders and decision -makers have different views on what current and future needs are. At the same time simulation models, which are key tools used to evaluate future impacts of decisions over water resources, are subject to uncertainty that stems from incomplete knowledge of aquifer hydraulic properties as well as initial and boundary conditions. The main goals of this research are: 1) to quantify how uncertainty is propagated from the model and parameter spaces to the decision space, and 2) to assess the data needs that arise from reliability requirements in model application. Uncertainty propagation from the parameter space to the Management space is evaluated using a first -order analysis and multiobjective optimization. The methodology is demonstrated by a synthetic case study where sustainable basin -wide optimal Groundwater Management policies are sought. Sustainability in this case refers to the aquifer’s ability to maintain surface base flows that depend on Groundwater table levels. In semi-arid regions Groundwater is the main or unique local source of water supply for human and ecological uses, while imported water usually has to be conveyed from a long distance at a high cost. In such conditions there are many stakeholders involved in decision-making regarding water resources, and therefore ambiguity in the definition of suitable m anagement objectives must be taken into account. The ultimate questions to be answered are: 1) whether it is possible to achieve sustainability within a prescribed planning horizon, 2) what are the actions to be taken, 3) what are the tradeoffs between present and future generations’ needs, and 4) whether these conclusions can be significantly affected by the availability of additional hydrological data.
