Sustainable Groundwater Management in Indian Wells, CA - Case Study

Motivation
The Indian Wells Valley in the Mojave Desert of California is home to the China Lake Naval Air Warfare Station, the city of Ridgecrest, and significant agricultural and mining interests. Residents and industries in the valley depend on groundwater, which has been depleted due to overuse since the 1960s.

The Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority required accurate information on the distribution and hydrologic properties of aquifers in the valley in order to sustainably manage these economically critical resources. The IWVDA contracted Stanford University to demonstrate the capabilities of surface and borehole geophysics as a cost-effective means to provide data for digital aquifer models of the valley.