Beneath the surface: complexities and groundwater policy-making

Abstract

Abstract Groundwater depletion is a worldwide phenomenon that has prompted calls for improved policy and management. A prominent policy recommendation, especially among economists, is the establishment of well-defined transferable groundwater rights and the promotion of water transfers or markets. Modelled effects and actual results in limited sites show promising potential, but progress has been slow, even in areas of significant need and capacity such as the western United States. This article identifies some of the complexities associated with defining groundwater rights and with managing groundwater aquifers. Those complexities may account to some degree for the incremental and limited progress toward transferable rights. Recent groundwater policy developments in California and other western states are reviewed briefly in light of those complexities.