California’s Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced that is developing a tool to help groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs) track water availability and use.
The tool, called the Groundwater Accounting Platform, is a state-supported data platform that DWR hopes will help prevent dry wells and water supply shortages.
The digital platform can be used for many purposes, including refining water budgets (accounting of the rates of inflows, outflows, and changes in water storage), outreach to landowners to create a common understanding of local groundwater availability, and development of water allocation and water trading programs.
With the platform, GSAs will be able to assess effects of pumping and recharge projects, improve understanding of water use, and improve the accuracy of scenario planning and modelling efforts. GSAs will be able to use the platform as-is or further develop the software to better suit their local needs. This makes the platform cost-effective because GSAs are not paying to build groundwater accounting software from scratch.
Groundwater, which is water naturally stored in the ground, serves as the State’s water savings account during dry years when less surface water is available. Nearly 85 percent of all Californians rely on groundwater for some portion of their water supply. The Groundwater Accounting Platform will help GSAs assess and quantify the impacts and benefits of management actions such as groundwater recharge projects, water trading programs and reducing demand on groundwater.
Under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), local agencies have new requirements to better understand, track, and account for groundwater use across designated basins. Robust water tracking and accounting systems like this one will serve as the foundation in advancing coordinated and well-informed decision-making as local agencies work to bring groundwater basins into sustainable conditions over the next two decades.
“With SGMA came a great need for more monitoring, planning and actions to achieve groundwater sustainability, and California’s shift to a hotter, drier future has accelerated that need,” says Paul Gosselin, deputy director of DWR’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Office. “This groundwater accounting platform will provide local agencies with an easily accessible tool to track groundwater use and availability and make informed management decisions to help mitigate the impacts of drought in the near-term and transition to groundwater sustainability over the long-term.”
The platform’s development is a collaborative effort that brings together DWR, the State Water Resources Control Board, the California Water Data Consortium, and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), with additional support from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation through a WaterSMART Applied Science grant.
The Groundwater Accounting Platform was initially developed by EDF in partnership with Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Storage District to manage groundwater in the central part of Kern County.
DWR, the Consortium, and EDF are now working to make the platform available to more local agencies, including collaborating with three new pilot project partners: Merced Irrigation-Urban GSA in Merced County, Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency in Santa Cruz County, and Yolo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District northwest of the Greater Sacramento region.
“The Groundwater Accounting Platform is an important data tool that will help build capacity at the local level and support ongoing landowner communication to address drought and long-term groundwater management,” adds Mike Myatt, senior director of climate resilient water systems at the Environmental Defense Fund.
DWR is providing funding and technical expertise to support the development of the Groundwater Accounting Platform. DWR and the Water Board are also working to ensure that the platform is compatible with the state portals that GSAs use to submit data, including DWR’s SGMA Portal and the Water Board’s Groundwater Extraction Annual Reporting System.
