Groundwater use from the Ozark Plateaus aquifer system, 1900 to 2010

Groundwater use from the Ozark Plateaus aquifer system, 1900 to 2010” is a short video showing modeled groundwater withdrawal rates from the Ozark Plateaus aquifer system (Ozark system) in the central United States. The Ozark Plateaus Groundwater Availability Study aims to quantify current groundwater resources in the Ozark system, evaluate how these resources have changed over time, and provide the tools needed to simulate system response to future human-related and environmental stresses (http://ar.water.usgs.gov/ozarks/). One challenging component for developing hydrologic budgets via groundwater flow models is quantifying water use through time because historical and site-specific water-use data are sparse. 

The groundwater withdrawal rates shown in this video were modeled by disaggregating county-level water-use data to site-specific well locations and aquifer units and extrapolating historical (pre-1960s) water use. Groundwater withdrawals used for public supply (such as municipalities), non-agriculture (including industrial, mining, commercial, and thermoelectric power generation uses), agriculture (including irrigation and aquaculture), and livestock are shown at the model-cell scale (which is 1 square mile). Domestic groundwater withdrawals are represented at the county level because of the large number of self-supplied domestic wells within each county. For a full description of methods and results, see Knierim, K.J., Nottmeier, A.M., Worland, S., Westerman, D.A., and Clark, B.R., 2017, Challenges for creating a site-specific groundwater-use record for the Ozark Plateaus aquifer system (central USA) from 1900 to 2010: Hydrogeology Journal, p. 1–15, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10040-017-1593-1. To download the modeled water-use data go to: https://dx.doi.org/10.5066/F7GQ6VV1.