Factors identifying aquifers with a high probability of management success

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Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Using the analogy of a common pasture, Garrett Hardin wrote that when access to a limited resource is open and unregulated, rational resource users are destined to deplete it: ‘Adding together the component partial utilities, the rational herdsman concludes that the only sensible course for him to pursue is to add another animal to his herd. And another; and another. […] Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit – in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination towards which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest […].’ (Hardin, 1968, p. 1244).

2. California has an estimated 515 groundwater basins, 127 of which have been identified as important groundwater resources (California Department of Water Resources, 2015).