Groundwater Governance in the United States: Common Priorities and Challenges

A research paper by the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research detailing a survey of state agency officials regarding groundwater governance in the United States, highlighting fragmented legal frameworks and shared priorities.

• Groundwater governance in the United States is characterized as fragmented, with state legal frameworks showing significant variation in how they address the protection of groundwater quality, the requirements of groundwater-dependent ecosystems, and the hydrologic link between surface water and groundwater.
• State agency officials identified three primary shared priorities for the governance of groundwater: the management of declining groundwater levels, the resolution of conflicts between users, and the issues of contamination and water quality.
• The survey of state officials indicated that there is a varying level of capacity among states to enforce their groundwater responsibilities and that groundwater governance has undergone substantial changes over the last few decades.

APA

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (2025). Groundwater Governance in the United States: Common Priorities and Challenges. https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/groundwater-governance-in-the-united-states-common-priorities-and-challenges/

Chicago

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. Groundwater Governance in the United States: Common Priorities and Challenges. 2025. https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/groundwater-governance-in-the-united-states-common-priorities-and-challenges/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research |title=Groundwater Governance in the United States: Common Priorities and Challenges |date=15 January 2025 |url=https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/groundwater-governance-in-the-united-states-common-priorities-and-challenges/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{interamericaninstituteforglobalchangeresearch2025groundwater, author = {{Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}}, title = {{Groundwater Governance in the United States: Common Priorities and Challenges}}, institution = {Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}, year = {2025}, month = jan, url = {https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/groundwater-governance-in-the-united-states-common-priorities-and-challenges/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }