The Future of The High Plains Aquifer

Addressing Potential Desertification In The Great Plains

 

RISD Thesis

Type: Academic / Individual Work

Time: Spring 2022

Tutor: Emily Vogler, Gavin Zeitz, Johanna Barthmaier-Payne

Location: Garden City, Kansas

 

High Plains Aquifer, also known as Ogallala Aquifer is one of the world’s largest aquifers. Today the High Plains Aquifers support about one-fifth of the agricultural product. It has 55.6% ranch land (USGS). Large-scale extraction for agricultural purposes started after World War II due to center pivot irrigation and to the adaptation of automotive engines to power groundwater wells. Today about 27% of the irrigated land in the entire United States lies over the aquifer, which yields about 30% of the groundwater used for irrigation in the United States. The aquifer is at risk of over-extraction and pollution. Once depleted, the aquifer will take over 6,000 years to replenish naturally through rainfall.

 

 

View and download my thesis book on RISD Digital Commons:

https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/958/