Groundwater pumping causes depletion of groundwater storage. The rate of depletion incurred by any new well is gradually decreasing and eventually becomes zero in the long run, after induced recharge and reduction of natural discharge of groundwater combined (capture) have become large enough to balance the pumping rate completely. If aquifer-wide aggregated pumping rates are comparatively large, then such a new dynamic equilibrium may not be reached and groundwater storage may become exhausted. Decisions to pump groundwater are motivated by people’s need for domestic water and by expected benefits of using water for a variety of activities. But how much finally is abstracted from an aquifer (or is considered to be an optimal aggregate abstraction rate) depends on a wide range of other factors as well. Among these, the constraint imposed by the groundwater balance (preventing aquifer exhaustion) has received ample attention in the professional literature. However, other constraints or considerations related to changes in groundwater level due to pumping are observed as well and in many cases they even may dominate the decisions on pumping. This paper reviews such constraints or considerations, examines how they are or may be incorporated in the decision-making process, and evaluates to what extent the resulting pumping rates and patterns create conditions that comply with principles of sustainability.

One of the aspects highlighted in the Framework for Action and other key documents produced by the Groundwater Governance Project (funded by GEF and implemented by UNESCO, FAO, World Bank and IAH) is the interdependence between groundwater and human activities related to other physical components of the real world. Consequently, it is important in groundwater governance to make essential linkages with other components of the water cycle (IWRM), with sanitation and wastewater management, with land use and land use practices, with energy and with the uses of subsurface space and other subsurface resources. This paper presents an overall description of the multiple uses of the subsurface space and of the exploitation and management of subsurface resources. It attempts to give an impression of intensities and trends in use and exploitation, of the possible interactions and of current and potential efforts to control negative impacts of such interactions. It concludes by briefly summarizing in three simple steps how to improve groundwater governance by making appropriate linkages with uses of the subsurface space and subsurface resources.

(2018). Transboundary groundwater resources: sustainable management and conflict resolution. Water International. Ahead of Print.