Transformations to Groundwater Sustainability: Joint Learnings from Human-groundwater Interactions, 2020-2023

The focus of the study was on groundwater practices, encompassing how people understood, accessed, and shared it. By employing qualitative ethnographic methods alongside hydrogeological and engineering insights, the researchers explored the knowledge, technologies, and institutions driving these initiatives. The ultimate goal was to articulate and evaluate their principles and functioning, identifying common patterns that could serve as generic models for achieving groundwater sustainability. The project took inspiration from the idea of water being both a social and natural phenomenon, building on critical scholarship about institutions and being particularly mindful of how technologies influenced groundwater distribution and use. The raw data cannot be shared, but compiled case studies of people's interactions with groundwater in a number of countries are available via related resources.