Download or read book Groundwater Exploitation in the High Plains written by David E. Kromm and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2021-10-08 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The High Plains region was once called the Great American Desert and thought to be, in the words of explorer Stephen Long, “wholly unfit for cultivation.” Now we know that beneath the surface, unbeknownst to the explorers and early settlers, lies the Ogallala aquifer, an underground formation that stretches for 800 miles from the Texas panhandle to South Dakota. It holds more water than Lake Huron. Indeed, the Ogallala has been referred to as the sixth Great Lake. It is the water pumped for irrigation from the Ogallala that has enabled a naturally dry region to produce up to 40 percent of America’s beef and 20 to 25 percent of its food and fiber, an output worth about $20 billion. In the forty years since the invention of center pivot irrigation, the High Plains aquifer system has been depleted at an astonishing rate. In 1978 the volume of water pumped from the aquifer exceeded the annual flow of the Colorado River. In Texas, water levels are down 200 feet in some areas. In Kansas, 700 miles of rivers that once flowed year round no longer flow at all. In short, the High Plains may be becoming the desert it was once thought to be. Is it too late to solve the problem? Geographers David Kromm and Stephen White assembled nine of the most knowledgeable scholars and water professionals in the Great Plains to help answer that question. The result is a collection of essays that insightfully examine the dilemmas of groundwater use. From a variety of perspectives they address both the technical problems and the politics of water management to provide a badly needed analysis of the implications of large-scale irrigation. They have included three case studies: the Nebraska Sand Hills, Northwestern Kansas, and West Texas. Kromm and White provide an introduction and conclusion to the volume.
Download or read book Groundwater Management Practices written by Angelos N. Findikakis and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2011-06-08 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Groundwater is an indispensable resource in many parts of the world, where it supports domestic water supply, irrigated agriculture and industry. Its increased, and often intensive, use during the last half century has created problems and raised concerns regarding the potential depletion of local aquifers, water quality degradation and various geologic hazards such as land subsidence and sinkholes. This volume includes contributions by experts from several countries who describe different groundwater management practices in their part of the world and discuss measures and actions in response to the challenges associated with the sustainability of groundwater use and the protection of the groundwater environment, as well as the evolution of legal and institutional framework needed for their implementation. It discusses past and present practices and various aspects of the regulatory and legal framework of groundwater management in Japan, China, India, Iran, Australia, the United States, Spain, Denmark, Switzerland and the European Union, and reviews recent efforts to improve the management of transboundary aquifer resources.
Download or read book Running Out written by Lucas Bessire and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-10-04 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finalist for the National Book Award An intimate reckoning with aquifer depletion in America's heartland The Ogallala aquifer has nourished life on the American Great Plains for millennia. But less than a century of unsustainable irrigation farming has taxed much of the aquifer beyond repair. The imminent depletion of the Ogallala and other aquifers around the world is a defining planetary crisis of our times. Running Out offers a uniquely personal account of aquifer depletion and the deeper layers through which it gains meaning and force. Anthropologist Lucas Bessire journeyed back to western Kansas, where five generations of his family lived as irrigation farmers and ranchers, to try to make sense of this vital resource and its loss. His search for water across the drying High Plains brings the reader face to face with the stark realities of industrial agriculture, eroding democratic norms, and surreal interpretations of a looming disaster. Yet the destination is far from predictable, as the book seeks to move beyond the words and genres through which destruction is often known. Instead, this journey into the morass of eradication offers a series of unexpected discoveries about what it means to inherit the troubled legacies of the past and how we can take responsibility for a more inclusive, sustainable future. An urgent and unsettling meditation on environmental change, Running Out is a revelatory account of family, complicity, loss, and what it means to find your way back home.
Download or read book Groundwater Management in the West written by Jeffrey S. Ashley and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the greatest conundrums facing the arid western United States is the availability, use, and quality of groundwater. In large sections of the West, groundwater is the only dependable source of water for agricultural production and home consumption. Yet many of the aquifers are being depleted at a rate that will suck them dry within a century. Furthermore, dependence upon groundwater in many areas will only increase in the future. This dependence is already having serious consequences for small towns on the Great Plains. Faced with growing costs associated with deeper wells and the need for ever more advanced technology for extracting water, these towns find they lack the resources to maintain current agricultural practices. ø In this timely assessment of the West?s groundwater resources, the authors provide a detailed overview of groundwater management in the Western states. The authors present for each state the various management strategies, laws, and political realities that have made groundwater appropriation such a volatile subject. They also suggest possible difficulties that states and regions might face under current groundwater policies. By examining separate cases and viewing the West as a whole, the authors are able to identify not only the most pressing problems but also the most appropriate management techniques for protecting water supplies for future use.
Download or read book Groundwater Management in the Great Plains written by and published by . This book was released on 1974 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Ogallala Blue written by William Ashworth and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2007-07-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A story of a crucial, dwindling natural resource: an invisible ocean of fresh water under the High Plains. The Ogallala Aquifer that lies deep beneath the Great Plains from Texas to Colorado contains enough water to fill Lake Erie nine times! Every year five trillion gallons are pumped out for irrigation, and if (or when) the aquifer goes dry, $20 billion worth of food and fiber grown with that irrigation will disappear. William Ashforth tells the fascinating history of the Ogallala from its formation millions of years ago to glimpses of the future when the Great Plains could return to their Sahara Desert-like past.
Download or read book U S Geological Survey Professional Paper written by and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Selected Water Resources Abstracts written by and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 772 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Geological Survey Professional Paper written by Geological Survey (U.S.) and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Integrated Groundwater Management written by Anthony J Jakeman and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-08-05 with total page 756 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The aim of this book is to document for the first time the dimensions and requirements of effective integrated groundwater management (IGM). Groundwater management is a formidable challenge, one that remains one of humanity’s foremost priorities. It has become a largely non-renewable resource that is overexploited in many parts of the world. In the 21st century, the issue moves from how to simply obtain the water we need to how we manage it sustainably for future generations, future economies, and future ecosystems. The focus then becomes one of understanding the drivers and current state of the groundwater resource, and restoring equilibrium to at-risk aquifers. Many interrelated dimensions, however, come to bear when trying to manage groundwater effectively. An integrated approach to groundwater necessarily involves many factors beyond the aquifer itself, such as surface water, water use, water quality, and ecohydrology. Moreover, the science by itself can only define the fundamental bounds of what is possible; effective IGM must also engage the wider community of stakeholders to develop and support policy and other socioeconomic tools needed to realize effective IGM. In order to demonstrate IGM, this book covers theory and principles, embracing: 1) an overview of the dimensions and requirements of groundwater management from an international perspective; 2) the scale of groundwater issues internationally and its links with other sectors, principally energy and climate change; 3) groundwater governance with regard to principles, instruments and institutions available for IGM; 4) biophysical constraints and the capacity and role of hydroecological and hydrogeological science including water quality concerns; and 5) necessary tools including models, data infrastructures, decision support systems and the management of uncertainty. Examples of effective, and failed, IGM are given. Throughout, the importance of the socioeconomic context that connects all effective IGM is emphasized. Taken as a whole, this work relates the many facets of effective IGM, from the catchment to global perspective.
Download or read book Groundwater Hydrology written by David Keith Todd and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2004-08-06 with total page 663 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thorough, up-to-date guide to groundwater science and technology Our understanding of the occurrence and movement of water under the Earth's surface is constantly advancing, with new models, improved drilling equipment, new research, and refined techniques for managing this vital resource. Responding to these tremendous changes, David Todd and new coauthor Larry Mays equip readers with a thorough and up-to-date grounding in the science and technology of groundwater hydrology. Groundwater Hydrology, Third Edition offers a unified presentation of the field, treating fundamental principles, methods, and problems as a whole. With this new edition, you'll be able to stay current with recent developments in groundwater hydrology, learn modern modeling methods, and apply what you've learned to realistic situations. Highlights of the Third Edition * New example problems and case studies, as well as problem sets at the end of each chapter. * A special focus on modern groundwater modeling methods, including a new chapter on modeling (Chapter 9), which describes the U. S. Geological Survey MODFLOW model. * Over 300 new figures and photos. * Both SI and U.S. customary units in the example problems. * Expanded coverage of groundwater contamination by chemicals. * New references at the end of each chapter, which provide sources for research and graduate study. Student and instructor resources for this text are available on the book's website at www.wiley.com/college/todd.
Download or read book Water for Texas written by Jim Norwine and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than the economy, more than changing demographics, evenmore than education, water is the key to the future of Texas. It is not much of an overstatement to claim that water is the future of Texas. In the fall of 2000, a conference on "the world's most crucial natural resource" was held at Texas A&M University. It was a gathering of people with many viewpoints and areas of expertise, all focused on what the book's editors rightly say is and will be the state's definingissue--water. Together, the observations and recommendations brought together in this volume represent some of the best thinking about Texas' connections with water--in the past, present, and future. Ranging from broad historical overviews to technical and scientific discussions, the chapters address the questions of where we have been and where we are headed as we enter a new century of challenges to provide water for Texas.
Download or read book The Texas Landscape Project written by David A. Todd and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2016-06-14 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Texas Landscape Project explores conservation and ecology in Texas by presenting a highly visual and deeply researched view of the widespread changes that have affected the state as its population and economy have boomed and as Texans have worked ever harder to safeguard its bountiful but limited natural resources. Covering the entire state, from Pineywoods bottomlands and Panhandle playas to Hill Country springs and Big Bend canyons, the project examines a host of familiar and not so familiar environmental issues. A companion volume to The Texas Legacy Project, this book tracks specific environmental changes that have occurred in Texas using more than 300 color maps, expertly crafted by cartographer Jonathan Ogren, and over 100 photographs that coalesce to fashion a broad portrait of the modern Texas landscape. The rich data, compiled by author David Todd, are presented in clearly written yet marvelously detailed text that gives historical context and contemporary statistics for environmental trends connected to the land, water, air, energy, and built world of the second-largest and second-most populated state in the nation. An engaging read for any environmentalist or conscientious citizen, The Texas Landscape Project provides a true sense of the grand scope of the Lone Star State and the high stakes of protecting it. To learn more about The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, sponsors of this book's series, please click here.
Download or read book Restoring the Flow written by Robert W. Sandford and published by Rocky Mountain Books Ltd. This book was released on 2009 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Try as we might, parts of North America may not escape the impacts of the global water crisis. The same kinds of water supply and quality issues that have appeared around our crowded planet are already beginning to present themselves here. Unfortunately, this is occurring at a time when, as a direct result of declining global food production, the world is beginning to rely more heavily than ever on agricultural communities in North America to help meet increasingly unattainable food-production goals. Instead of waiting for a water crisis of our own, North Americans may well wish to put the lessons learned elsewhere in the world into active practice. Passionately conceived, clearly written and citing concrete examples from all over the world, Restoring the Flow is an approachable yet authoritative source, one of the many implements concerned citizens, government officials, businesspeople and policymakers can use and reuse in understanding and addressing this ever-growing global crisis.
Download or read book Interdisciplinary Collaboration for Water Diplomacy written by Shafiqul Islam and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-11-22 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book introduces the concept of Water Diplomacy as a principled and pragmatic approach to problem-driven interdisciplinary collaboration, which has been developed as a response to pressing contemporary water challenges arising from the coupling of natural and human systems. The findings of the book are the result of a decade-long interdisciplinary experiment in conceiving, developing, and implementing an interdisciplinary graduate program on Water Diplomacy at Tufts University, USA. This has led to the development of the Water Diplomacy Framework, a shared framework for understanding, diagnosing, and communicating about complex water issues across disciplinary boundaries. This framework clarifies important distinctions between water systems - simple, complicated, or complex - and the attributes that these distinctions imply for how these problems can be addressed. In this book, the focus is on complex water issues and how they require a problem-driven rather than a theory-driven approach to interdisciplinary collaboration. Moreover, it is argued that conception of interdisciplinarity needs to go beyond collaboration among experts, because complex water problems demand inclusive stakeholder engagement, such as in fact-value deliberation, joint fact finding, collective decision making, and adaptive management. Water professionals working in such environments need to operate with both principles and pragmatism in order to achieve actionable, sustainable, and equitable outcomes. This book explores these ideas in more detail and demonstrates their efficacy through a diverse range of case studies. Reflections on the program are also included, from conceptualization through implementation and evaluation. This book offers critical lessons and case studies for researchers and practitioners working on complex water issues as well as important lessons for those looking to initiate, implement, or evaluate interdisciplinary programs to address other complex problems in any setting.
Download or read book Soil Water and Agronomic Productivity written by Rattan Lal and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2012-06-19 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Crop water use can be increased by management of surface runoff, groundwater, irrigation, and soil water. Technological innovations to enhance availability of water for agricultural crops depend on soil and site-specific conditions. Devoted to the principles and practices of enhancing water use efficiency, Soil Water and Agronomic Productivity addr
Download or read book Sustainable Water Management written by Daniel H. Chen and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2016-10-14 with total page 446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While the world’s population continues to grow, the availability of water remains constant. Facing the looming water crisis, society needs to tackle strategic management issues as an integrated part of the solution toward water sustainability. The first volume in the two-volume set Sustainable Water Management and Technologies offers readers a practical and comprehensive look at such key water management topics as water resource planning and governance, water infrastructure planning and adaption, proper regulations, and water scarcity and inequality. It discusses best management practices for water resource allocation, ground water protection, and water quality assurance, especially for rural, arid, and underdeveloped regions of the world. Timely topics such as drought, ecosystem sustainability, climate change, and water management for shale oil and gas development are presented. Discusses best practices for water resource allocation, ground water protection, and water quality assurance. Offers chapters on urban, rural, arid, and underdeveloped regions of the world. Describes timely topics such as drought, ecosystem sustainability, climate change, and water management for shale oil and gas development. Covers water resource planning and governance, water infrastructure planning and adaptation, proper regulations, and water scarcity and inequality Discusses water resource monitoring, efficiency, and quality management.
