The Impact of Groundwater Development in Arid Lands: a Literature Review and Annotated Bibliography
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The Impact of Groundwater Development in Arid Lands: A Literature Review and Annotated Bibliography Item Type text; Book Authors Keith, Susan Jo Publisher Office of Arid Lands Studies, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ) Download date 04/10/2021 08:46:42 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/239314 Arid Lands Resource Information Paper No. 10 The University of Arizona OFFICE OF ARID LANDS STUDIES Tucson, Arizona 85721 1977 ADDITIONAL PUBLICATIONS ON ARID LANDS Office of Arid Lands Studies Seventy-Five Years of Arid Lands Research at the University of Arizona, A Selective Bibliography, 1891-1965 Arid Lands Abstracts, no. 3 (1972)-no. 8 (1976) Jojoba and Its Uses, An International Conference, 1972 Arid Lands Resource Information Papers, no. I (1972)-no. 10 (1977) An International Conference on the Utilization of Guayule, 1975 Application of Technology in Developing Countries (1977) Desertification: A World Bibliography (1976) Desertification: Process, Problems, Perspectives (1976) Arid Lands Newsletter, no. I, 1975- to date University of Arizona Press (-=OALS authors): -Deserts of the World -Arid Lands in Perspective -Food, Fiber and the Arid Lands Coastal Deserts, Their Natural and Human Environments Polar Deserts and Modern Man -Arid Lands Research Institutions: A World Directory, Revised edition, 1977 Windmill and Stock -Watering Tank , Semiarid grassland of southeastern Arizona -Photo by S. J. Keith Arid Lands Resource Information Paper No. 10 THE IMPACT OF GROUNDWATER DEVELOPMENT IN ARID LANDS: A Literature Review and Annotated Bibliography by Susan Jo Keith The University of Arizona OFFICE OF ARID LANDS STUDIES Tucson, Arizona 85721 1977 The work upon which this publication is based was supported in part by funds provided by The U.S.Department of the Interior /Office of Water Research and Technology as authorized by The Water Resources Research Act of 1964, as amended CONTENTS Page Foreword iv Preface v Acknowledgments vi Abstract vii I. GROUNDWATER AND ARID LANDS 1 1.Introduction 1 2.Groundwater in arid lands 2 3.The effect of pumping on an aquifer 4 II. PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS 7 1.Introduction 7 2.Impacts due to the use of groundwater 7 a.Irrigation use 7 b.Livestock use 9 3.Impacts due to the response of the aquifer to groundwater pumping 10 a.Spring flow 10 b.Vegetation 11 c. Streamflow 11 d. Groundwater flow 12 e.Drainage 15 f.Groundwater quality 16 i.Inland aquifers 16 ii.Coastal aquifers 17 a) Economic impacts 19 b) Legal and political aspects 19 g.Topography 20 I.Subsidence 20 H. Earth fissures and faults 21 iii.Geomorphic impact 22 iv. Economic impact 26 Eloy -Picacho area, Arizona 26 Santa Clara Valley, California 27 Houston -Galveston area, Texas 27 v.Legal aspects 29 4. Summary 29 III. SOCIOECONOMIC IMPACTS OF GROUNDWATER DEVELOPMENT 30 1. 1.Introduction 30 2.Health impacts 30 3.Cultural impacts: Groundwater development and nomadic pastoralism 33 a. Groundwater development and the Papago Indians 34 Papago culture Pre -1900 35 Post-1900 Papago culture 36 Summary 39 i Page 4.Economic impacts: Groundwater development and irrigated agriculture 39 a.Economic impact of the initial development of groundwater in developing regions 39 i.Groundwater as a catalyst in economic development: Pakistan 40 b. Economic impact of a diminishing groundwater resource 47 IV. AN OVERVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 55 V. SOME FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS 56 1.The physical setting 56 2.Technology 56 a.Technological change 56 b.Appropriate technology 57 3.Cultural -institutional aspects 59 a.Developing countries 59 b.Developed countries 60 VI. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 62 SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 64 BIBLIOGRAPHY 71 Author index 130 Keyword index 133 ILLUSTRATIONS Figures: 1.1.Cone of depression in X- section 5 1.2.Cone of depression in plan view 5 1.3.Aquifer under undisturbed conditions 5 1.4.Pumped aquifer 5 1.5.Idealized hydrograph of well in arid area 6 1.6.Idealized hydrograph of well in humid area 6 2.1.Degradation of groundwater from irrigation 8 2.2.Spread of desertification through development of wells 9 A. Original situation, end of dry season 1 9 B. After well -digging project ...End of dry season 2 9 2.3.A: An effluent stream 11 B: An influent stream 12 2.4.Groundwater elevations and direction of flow in an area in southern Arizona 13 ii 2.5. San Joaquin Valley: 14 A. Flow conditions in 1900 14 B. Flow conditions in 1966 14 2.6.Hydraulic conditions in an unconfined aquifer in continuity with the ocean 18 2.7. Hydraulic conditions in a confined aquifer in continuity with the ocean 18 2.8.Profiles of land subsidence and artesian head decline 20 2.9.Profiles of subsidence through time in an area in the San Joaquin Valley 21 2.10. Land subsidence, 1959 -1962, Arvin -Maricopa area, San Joaquin Valley 22 2.11. Air photo of the Picacho Fault 23 2.12. Gully in Eloy -Picacho subsidence area 24 2. 13. Looking downstream, gully in Eloy - Picacho subsidence area 24 2.14. Fissure which has intercepted a dirt road 25 2.15. Fissure showing adjacent earth slumping and wasting 25 2.16.Fissure showing dendritic drainage developing up- gradient 25 2.17. Subsidence in the Eloy -Picacho area of central Arizona 26 2.18. Approximately 3,000 square miles affected by land surface subsidence in Texas 28 2.19. Subsidence of the surface in the Houston -Baytown area, 1943 -1973 28 3. 1. Map of Arizona showing location of Papago Indian Reservation 34 3.2. Map of Pakistan 41 3.3. Estimate of private tubewells in Pakistan 42 3.4. Aggregate marginal demand curves for water for several types of users 48 3.5.Composite aggregate marginal demand curve for water for several types of users 48 3. 6.Total personal income from all sources, Arizona, 1929 -1970, in dollars of current purchasing power 50 3.7. Water use in Arizona 1936 -1968 51 3.8. Percentage of personal income by broad source, Arizona, 1929 -1970 51 3.9. Personal income by broad source, Arizona, 1929 -1970, in dollars of constant purchasing power (1957 -1959 =100) 52 Tables: 2.1. Changes in geochemical type of water from 1964 -1970 due to groundwater pumping in an area in the Punjab, Pakistan 16 2.2. Changes in water quality usability and dilution requirements from 1963 -1970, due to groundwater pumping in an area of the Punjab, Pakistan 17 3.1. Water -related diseases 31 3.2. Number of Papago ranch and grazing locations since prior to 1850 37 3.3. Estimated numbers of livestock 38 3.4. Availability of irrigation water, by source, Pakistan, 1960- 1969/70 (maf) 43 3.5.Cropping patterns and cropping intensities of tubewell and nontubewell farmers, 1967 43 3.6.Yields per acre, with and without tubewells 44 3.7. Size of holding and fertilizer use of tubewell and nontubewell farmers, 1963/64, Pakistan 45 3.8. Land and labor inputs, tubewell and nontubewell farms 45 3.9. Net farm income with and without tubewells, by size of farm, Pakistan 46 3.10.Changing structure of the Arizona economy related to water diversions and pumpage 53 5.1. Comparison of the benefits of two tubewell technology alternatives for installation in Bangladesh 58 iii FOREWORD The Arid Lands Resource Information Paper presented here, the eighth prepared for the Water Resources Scientific Information Center (WRSIC), was supported in part by the U. S. Department of the Interior, Office of Water Research and Technology Grant No. 14 -31- 0001 -5254, to the University of Arizona, Office of Arid Lands Studies, Patricia Paylore, Principal Investi- gator; and in part by the U. S. Agency for International Development as a contribution from its 211(d) institutional grant to the University of Arizona. [Two other Papers, Nos. 5 (Jojoba) and 7 (Guayule) in the series, were funded by another Federal agency.] I wish once more to thank the National Science Foundation for its early funding of the development of the computer program which now handles so successfully the Arid Lands Information System (ALIS). The extensive bibliography accompanying this Paper was produced by ALIS, and includes over one hundred references prepared by the Office of Arid Lands Studies originally under previous OWRT/WRSIC grants.These, and others where users are referred to SWRA [Selected Water Resources Abstracts] in lieu of abstracts, are taken from RECON, ERDA's Oak Ridge -based information system. While I appreciate the support of OWRT/WRSIC of the Office of Arid Lands Studies, University of Arizona, as a U. S. Center of Competence in water- related problems of arid lands, neither the U. S. Department of the Interior nor the University of Arizona is responsible for the views expressed herein. Patricia Paylore Assistant Director Office of Arid Lands Studies Tucson, Arizona 85721 September 27, 1977 iv PREFACE The scientific mind, in being totally scientific, is being unscientific... The scientist atomizes, someone must synthesize The scientist withdraws, someone must draw together The scientist particularizes, someone must universalize The scientist dehumanizes, someone must humanize The scientist turns his back on the as yet, and perhaps eternally, unverifiable And someone must face it -Fowles (as quoted in Wiener, 1972) Interdisciplinary research is always a gamble, and for a topic suchas this one cannot help feeling the odds are against him.In this paper depth has been sacrificed to scope for good reason. Our water problems are not simply problems of physical scarcity or quality, or of retrieval, storage, and distribution.Our water problems, and our methods of solving them, are related to every aspect ofour physical and cultural being, from the environment in which we function, toour cultural institutions, to our own individual personal behavior.