WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT CRITERIA FOR SUSTAINABLY MANAGING GROUNDWATER RESOURCES? ASSESSING PERCEPTIONS FROM GROUNDWATER PROFESSIONALS

Sustainably managing groundwater resources to meet current societal needs without endangering the needs of future generations typically requires carefully chosen management criteria. However, it is not clear whether there is consensus about which criteria are the most important and to what degree various criteria are different from one another. To address these issues, this research study seeks to assess how groundwater professionals perceive the importance of various groundwater criteria, as well as ascribe weights to those criteria. The criteria that are considered in this study are hydrogeologic and aquifer characteristics, social and economic demands and needs of the study area, the population dependent on groundwater resources, available groundwater supply, availability of alternate water sources, financial capability to develop alternate water resources, and political motivation and support to develop alternate water resources. A mixed methods approach utilizing Likert-type questions, short responses, and unrestricted comments was used to analyze survey responses from 136 water professionals. The Likert survey is analyzed through the Analytic Heirarchy Process, the short answers through statistical analysis, and the comments through textual analysis. Results indicate a general agreement on the importance of the provided criteria regardless of work sector or location. Respondents indicated that hydrogeologic and aquifer characteristics is the most important criterion for groundwater management. Although political will was perceived to be of low importance, most water professionals commented on the need for, and difficulty of working within the constraints of the political system. The water professionals’ common scoring of the importance of the seven criteria indicates that groundwater professionals may agree on new, more multi-dimensional approaches to groundwater management.