Determination and redetermination are critical components of a unitization agreement. The negotiation and renegotiation of the share allocation system enable parties to update the agreement as new information or technology appears. Several accepted methods of redetermination have developed in the oil and gas context, but none currently exist for aquifers. Some examples do appear to approach direct and indirect methods of aquifer redetermination. Examples of direct methods would involve the proven availability of groundwater or available rights to storage within the aquifer. Examples of indirect methods include allocations determined by modeling of geologic conditions, pooled reductions in groundwater extraction, or refinements in a management plan that allocates extraction rates.

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.