Reconnaissance‐Level Alternative Optimal Ground‐Water Use Strategies

Abstract

This study develops regionally optimal ground‐water extraction strategies. Alternative explicit planning objectives are: (1) Maximize total pumping from the underlying aquifer while causing the evolution of a steady potentiometric surface; and (2) maintain a prespecified target potentiometric surface. Implicit objectives involve controlling stream/aquifer interflow and water flow across a state boundary, and attempting to avoid gross disruption of current cropping patterns. Models, bounds, constraints, and data are formulated. Alternative optimal strategies and the rationale for preferring one strategy are presented for a region in Arkansas. The objective of maintaining the relatively unstressed target potentiometric surface yields politically and socially unacceptable water‐use strategies. The most acceptable strategy maximizes sustainable ground‐water extraction, maintains recent ground‐water flow to Louisiana, maintains current potentiometric surface heads at the Louisiana‐Arkansas border, maintains more than minimally acceptable surface water flow to Louisiana, and approximately maintains current cropping distributions. Developed planning models utilize the embedding approach, over 300 pumping variables, and 700 total variables, indicating the utility of the embedding method for regional sustained yield (steady‐state) planning.