Researchers are looking to farmers for new ways of monitoring groundwater.

Heavy use of surface water for growing food crops is shifting agriculture and other industry to use groundwater – which is much more difficult to measure and monitor.

Using local producer knowledge as ‘soft data’ to estimate groundwater use in modelling is a helpful tool in mapping sustainable use of scarce resources, Flinders University experts say.

The heavily agricultural La Vi River Basin in Vietnam has been studied as part of a five-year project funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).

“Groundwater use for food and industrial production is increasing globally, putting pressure on groundwater resources and associated ecosystems,” says Flinders University Professor Okke Batelaan.

“In many countries, particularly in developing regions as well as Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin (MDB), this abstraction may be poorly organised and not regularly gauged for data.”

Researchers interviewed local farmers about their land use, agricultural practices and water use.

They report that the approach was very helpful in collecting base line information for future use – particularly when climate change or variable rainfall pose a threat to future water management.

“Although often thought of as a wet, tropical climate, Vietnam’s South central coast has long dry seasons, and hence suffers from surface water shortages, similar to many parts of Australia,” says groundwater expert Dr Margaret Shanafield.

“Groundwater use provides a significant solution to local farmers for producing cash crops and improving livelihood.”

The system could also be used in Australia in areas such as the northern part of the MDB where groundwater is largely unmonitored.

The study developed a cost-effective and computationally simple solutions for estimating groundwater abstraction in data-poor agricultural regions, researchers say.

The study is accessible here.