InTeGrate Modules and Courses >Water, Agriculture, Sustainability > Student Materials > Unit 4
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These materials are part of a collection of classroom-tested modules and courses developed by InTeGrate. The materials engage students in understanding the earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues. The collection is freely available and ready to be adapted by undergraduate educators across a range of courses including: general education or majors courses in Earth-focused disciplines such as geoscience or environmental science, social science, engineering, and other sciences, as well as courses for interdisciplinary programs.
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These student materials complement the Water, Agriculture, Sustainability Instructor Materials. If you would like your students to have access to the student materials, we suggest you either point them at the Student Version which omits the framing pages with information designed for faculty (and this box). Or you can download these pages in several formats that you can include in your course website or local Learning Managment System. Learn more about using, modifying, and sharing InTeGrate teaching materials.
Initial Publication Date: March 2, 2017

Unit 4: Irrigation and Groundwater Mining

Is groundwater mining sustainable? In this unit you will compare and contrast long-term (decades) groundwater well levels in six states representing the East Coast, West Coast, and Midwest Plains states. Satellite imagery maps of the well locations will give you an idea of the land cover, specifically the presence of irrigated crops. By using groundwater well data from the USGS, you will recognize the depletion of aquifers in the western US (e.g., the Ogallala/High Plains Aquifer), also known as groundwater mining, is an unsustainable practice.

Before Class

Before class, you should first learn about large, deep, ancient aquifers in the United States. Our suggestion is to first watch a five-minute NBC video on the Ogallalla/High Plains aquifer. You will then read about the topic from the USGS High Plains Aquifer website - ask your teacher if you should read one or both of these: Physical and Social aspects and geology of the aquifer.

In Class

In this exercise, you will look at groundwater well level records for six states to observe changes in water table levels over time. The exercise is based on USGS Groundwater Watch records and Google Earth Satellite imagery.

If your instructor is having you use Google Earth, then first make sure your computer has Google Earth installed. Instructions are found on the Unit 4 Student Worksheet (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 30kB Jan23 17) - you will need to use USGS well records (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 119kB Jan23 17) for this.

Next, download the .kmz file Groundwater Well Sites (KMZ File 946bytes Jul12 16) and open this in Google Earth.

  • If the instructor is using the shortened version of the exercise, then use the .kmz file with one well per state (KMZ File 801bytes Jul13 16).

Now follow the directions on the worksheet. The main part of this is recording observations from both the water table vs time plots and the terrain characteristics from the satellite imagery. In particular, you should be looking for evidence of agriculture and irrigation (such as crop circles).

References and Resources

Alley, W.M., Reilly, T.E. and Franke, O.L., (2013). General Facts and Concepts About Groundwater, in Sustainability of Ground-Water Resources. US Geological Survey Circular 1186.

Steward, D.R., Bruss, P. J., Yang, X., Staggenborg, S. A., Welch, S. M. and Apley, M. D., (2013). Tapping unsustainable groundwater stores for agricultural production in the High Plains Aquifer of Kansas, projections to 2110. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, doi:10.1073/pnas.1220351110

These materials are part of a collection of classroom-tested modules and courses developed by InTeGrate. The materials engage students in understanding the earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues. The collection is freely available and ready to be adapted by undergraduate educators across a range of courses including: general education or majors courses in Earth-focused disciplines such as geoscience or environmental science, social science, engineering, and other sciences, as well as courses for interdisciplinary programs.
Explore the Collection »