Evaluating Aquifer Management Objectives against Socioeconomic Indicators to Understand Differential Impacts on Communities across Multiple Scales

Abstract

Urban groundwater supply planning is often achieved at the regional scale while the effects of aquifer exploitation are experienced on a local scale. In the Mexico City metropolitan area, land and water use changes have caused massive overdraft and subsidence, threatening water supply in marginalized communities. While spatially distributed groundwater models have been developed to test model uncertainty and policy interventions, there is little understanding of how regional aggregation of planning objectives can exacerbate existing social inequities. This study develops socially informed spatial analysis to evaluate differential impacts of groundwater pumping policies at multiple scales. We compare four planning objectives at three spatial resolutions to determine if policy preference shows a relationship with socioeconomic indicators. We find that the multiobjective performance of pumping policies can neglect marginalized communities according to multiple indicators. Further, clustering model grid cells according to socioeconomic indicators allows for more accurate analysis of this effect. Finally, multiscale analysis of policy preference considering subregional socioeconomic characteristics can aid in equitable selection of aquifer management alternatives.