Jordan Kear*
*Kear Groundwater, PO Box 2601, Santa Barbara, CA, 93120
(jordan@keargroundwater.com)

Regulatory drivers for a scientific approach to understanding the interaction of surface water and groundwater are increasing as competition for limited resources and climatic changes become more recognized globally. This has prompted detailed analysis, modeling, and testing of a common resource. Demonstration of surface and groundwater connectivity – or lack thereof – is often oversimplified, but must consider a multidimensional approach to be defensible. Geologic and hydrologic connectivity is often the first tier of understanding and can be undertaken using an accurate review of vineyard irrigation or winery well location, design, and construction, and correlation of subsurface strata or rock types to springs, creeks, or rivers, and their sources. As the tiered approach becomes more complex, water levels below ground and surface water flows or locations aboveground and changes to both due to pumping or diversion, require more detailed temporal monitoring and model efforts. Since a model must be anchored in reality to be useful, site-specific data is imperative to inform the calculations. Where multiple wells are present in a correlative aquifer, pump testing can provide invaluable subsurface information on aquifer parameters. At the highest tier of investigation, surface water-groundwater interaction evaluation should include high frequency and long-term monitoring of several data points: water levels in wells, production rates, creek stage heights, precipitation, air temperature and pressure, and other climate factors. Water quality is often the most important filament of connectivity, and must be considered in mineralogical, physical, and biogeochemical phases. Water temperature and changes over time at multiple scales are one of the most key components of an interaction study.

Funding Support: Private Consultancy