Depth to groundwater
Depth to grondwater
This Depth to groundwater indicator and all other indicators in the Land Manager’s Monitoring Guide series are provided in PDF format to allow you to either read it on the screen, or from a version that you print, that can be used in the field as a reference to guide your monitoring activities.
Content for the Depth to groundwater indicator follows the heading structure below:
- What is it?
- Why monitor this indicator?
- Planning monitor this indicator
- How do I measure it?
- Level 1 monitoring
- Level 2 monitoring
- How to record your results
- What does your data mean?
- What are some management options?
- Other information sources
- Glossary
- References
- Acknowledgments
What is it?
Depth to groundwater—sometimes referred to as depth to watertable or the free water depth to the local watertable—refers to the shortest vertical distance from the soil surface to the first water level below ground. Change in depth to groundwater refers to the regular monitoring over time of any variation of this depth.
Groundwater is the water occurring below the surface of the landscape, occupying cavities and spaces in the regolith (humus, soil, subsoil and loose rock) and bedrock. The upper surface of the groundwater is the watertable.
Why monitor this indicator?
Monitoring the long-term change in the depth of groundwater on selected sites on your property will give you an indication of whether the groundwater is rising, falling or staying the same, and what impact your management actions or the concerted effort of others across a wider area is having. As with all monitoring activities you will need to clearly identify why you want to monitor depth to groundwater and how monitoring this indicator may support your property or business planning objectives.
Monitoring depth to groundwater can provide useful information about the development of salinity or risk of saline outbreaks on your property and may help others understand what salinity processes may be happening in your area or across the region. In areas that are experiencing or at risk of developing dryland salinity, the trends in groundwater depth can be used to identify recharge and discharge areas (see ‘Glossary’), possible groundwater restrictions and likely implications for surface salting and plant growth.
Monitoring depth to groundwater along with other monitoring activities can provide information about the availability, level and movement of water and possible contaminants such as pesticides through the aquifers that pass through your property.
Monitoring depth to groundwater on your property can help identify how your management actions may influence groundwater levels. You may have set some objective or target (such as ensuring the most efficient use of applied water to your cropping area) or may want to contribute to local efforts at maintaining a particular range of groundwater levels. Collecting depth to groundwater data and a map showing the location of your monitoring sites will provide useful information to meet such objectives.
After monitoring depth to groundwater long-term you will be able to obtain:
- Trend data on when, whether and at what rate groundwater is rising, falling or static over time and if you have a number of monitoring bores you may be able to determine flow directions and rates due to the effects of drought, high rainfall events and groundwater pumping
- An indication of salinity risk including the likely implications for agricultural production, surface salting, water quality and stream salinity and native vegetation and other biodiversity
- Information about the responses of groundwater to rainfall events
- Response of groundwater levels to property management (e.g. water diversions or pumping of groundwater for irrigation)
- Information to develop management strategies that maintain a target depth to the groundwater in your property.
Downloads
From this page you can download the following files:
- The print-friendly version of this indicator (PDF, 304K)* (PDF, 176 kB*) that contains a copy of all the pages from the depth to groundwater section of the Land Manager's Monitoring Guide.
- Datasheets for levels 1 and 2 monitoring of the depth to groundwater indicator have been provided below as portable document format (PDF), zipped files (ZIP) and executable Excel files (EXE). These datasheets will help you to record and analyse your monitoring data and include metadata sheets, field recording sheets, spreadsheets and example data and charts.
- Datasheets for level 1 and 2 monitoring (PDF, 121K)* (PDF, 29 kB*)(ZIP, 10 kB)(EXE, 78 kB).
If you experience any difficulty downloading or accessing the materials within the Land Manager's Monitoring Guide please contact the LMMG Team.
* Requires Acrobat Reader
Last updated: 09 September 2008