Multi-year groundwater allocation policies, compared to single-year allocations, provide users more flexibility to respond to drought. However, multi-year groundwater allocations come at the cost of higher average and total rates of pumping and stream depletion. Depending on desired management goals, it may be optimal to tailor groundwater allocation policies over space or to implement a blended approach.
The peer-reviewed research paper is forthcoming. You can read the full abstract here. Drop us a line if you would like to learn more!
Update: The peer-reviewed research paper, Hydrologic-economic Trade-offs of Groundwater Allocation Policy Design, was published in AGU’s journal Water Resources Research. Richael wrote a blog post about the main findings.
