3 - Governance of Groundwater and Aquifers

Summary

Groundwater management appears to be reaching the end of its theoretical development. Principles of resource governance are increasingly expanding the social elements incorporated into groundwater policy, akin to social externalities. What is missing is the inclusion of additional physical externalities resulting from groundwater extraction, like subsidence, storage space development, water quality, biology, geothermal heating and cooling, and other aquifer properties. Like the increasing application of transdisciplinary approaches to groundwater policy, the application of a transresource approach could include these additional resources indirectly associated with groundwater use. This approach complicates the traditional perception of groundwater as a public resource, as aquifers are a combination of public and private property rights. Several examples represent the inclusion of transdisciplinary approaches, but none appear to include transresource approaches that signify a transition to aquifer governance.