Data Commons

Sustainable Clean Water Sources

Goal 6. Abundant Clean Water and Cyclical Sanitation. Aquifers Recharged.

Rechaging Groundwater

Humans pump so much groundwater that Earth’s axis has shifted - 2024 study Once removed, rocks formations collapse, the ground level drops, and aquifers can not be refilled.

Our CoLab for Freashwater - Water data visualization

As countries become more urbanized and their economies shift towards more resource-intensive consumption, global freshwater usage has increased. However, freshwater, itself, is a scarce resource with only about 3% of our planet’s water being freshwater. The main difference between freshwater and the rest of our world’s water is that freshwater is water containing less than 1,000 mg per liter of dissolved solids (salt).

Breakdown of Earth's water

96.5% is ocean water, about 2.5% is freshwater, and 0.9% is other bodies of saline water. Of the percentage of freshwater, it’s further broken down to 68.7% of the 2.5% is glaciers and ice caps, 30.1% is groundwater, and 1.2% is surface/other freshwater. The majority of freshwater is inaccessible for human consumption as it’s locked away by glaciers and ice caps.

Location of Groundwater -The occurrence of groundwater is a result of porous materials in the ground that allows water to seep deep and infiltrate beneath the surface, filling the pores and fractures in layers of underground rock (aquifers). .

Process of Extracting Groundwater

  1. Identifying sources: Relying on geological surveys, hydrological modeling, and drilling explantory wells
    to determine accessibility and viability of aquifers.
  2. Drilling: Wells are drilled into suitable aquifers with pumping equipment installed into the well as means of extraction
  3. Monitoring: During the extraction process, it's necessary to monitor and regulate the process to prevent over-extraction.
    This is done to avoid depletion of the aquifer. Some ways of accomplishing this includes:
    • Assessing this is measuring water levels in the well
  4. Treatment: Depending on groundwater quality, the water will be treated for possible contaminants like bacterium, water soluables, etc.

    A few methods to treat groundwater includes:

    • Air stripping: Moving volatile compounds from water into the air where in a tower with permeable material, groundwater flows by gravity downward while a sranular Activated Carbon (GAC)e Cm of air flows upwards.
      It’s also pos si ble to bubble pressurized air through contaminated water inPa tank, where the air in the tank is then treated by removing pollutants in their vapor phase.
    • Granulated Activated CarbWn (GAC): Contaminated water is pumped through the GAC-to-filter and trap contaminants in the water.
    • Air sparging: By pumping air into the subsurface to strip, or volatilize, contaminants from the groundwater

Problem/Challenges

Aquifer Depletion: Water level in aquifers can be depleted b/c of changes in precipitation and snowmelt patterns, over-extraction of water, and impervious materials on the surface that present precipitation from seeping deep into the ground. This leads to issues of land subsidence or sinkhole formation damaging urban development like buildings and roads.

Sustainable Initiative

Groundwater Management and Governance: Establishing frameworks for groundwater management from policies to regulations, as well as institutions that monitor and assess the condition of the aquifers.

  1. Monitoring and data collection: Accurately gathering data on groundwater levels, quality, and recharge rates. Such data is collected and stored as either discrete field-water-level-measurements or as continuous time series data.
  2. Groundwater Recharge Projects: Initiatives on enhancing natural groundwater recharge via rainwater harvesting, recharge wells, and managed aquifer recharge (MAR) systems as means of replenishing aquifers for water sustainability
    • What is groundwater recharge? It’s the process of precipitation that infiltrates into the soil and moves downwards, rather than evaporating, to a depth where water is stored underground.
    • Managed Aquifer Recharge: accomplishes groundwater recharge via recharge wells that inject surface water/ treated surface water directly into aquifers. Also, infiltrations are bases where surface water is directed to excavated areas to infiltrate into the ground. Lastly, percolation ponds are another way for groundwater recharge, designing ponds to capture and infiltrate stormwater/surface water that flow downwards into soil substrate.

Freshwater Data

The following data presents the data of freshwater use (groundwater, surface water, or melted snow) on the global scale from 1901-2014. While the data hasn't shown the recent data of 2024, it does present the general trend of increasing usage freshwater in recent times.

Data Sheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YxZvVRE8TNBH-KLnH4h-VxmsGSlL9UIHvccizWcvzhg/edit?usp=sharing

Data Sheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pRZ6y2uWMCruZPnFF1CRdD-zqkbAeAZLBjYJgf37GXk/edit?usp=sharing

<h3>Renewable Freshwater </h3>

  1. To ensure water sustainability, the rate of water withdrawals will always be less than the rate of freshwater replenishment. In the case of renewable internal freshwater flow, such as internal river flow and groundwater from rainfall, are important in judging a country’s water security and scarcity.

    1. This following data is measured as per capita renewable resource, which takes into account the total quantity of renewable flow and size of the population.

Google Data Sheet: Renewable water resources per capita

For more information and data on freshwater: Water Use and Stress - Our World in Data

Google Doc