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Publication Date

Fall 2025

Degree Type

Thesis - Campus Access Only

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Environmental Studies

Advisor

Rachel O'Malley; Ahoura Zandiatashbar; Bo Yang; Diana Moanga

Abstract

Food production in the Central Valley of California relies extensively on the availability of water resources. In a normal rainfall year, 30% of irrigation comes from groundwater, increasing to 70% in drought years. Climate change is triggering extreme temperatures and frequent water-scarce conditions, exacerbated by groundwater pumping, which together have caused critical groundwater overdraft in the region. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) of 2014 was enacted to reduce groundwater use. This paper investigated effects of cropscape on groundwater level (GWL) changes in the counties of San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Merced after SGMA adoption. I use observations from over 412 real-time well monitoring stations from 2014 to 2021 combined with USDA/NASS GIS datasets on cropscapes to analyze how changes in spatial and temporal aspects of cropscapes interact with groundwater levels. My results showed an increase of 23% in the acreage of almond orchards between 2014 and 2021 and mean groundwater levels drop of 1.83 meters in the region, although total agricultural land decreased by 0.75%. Results show the greatest drop in groundwater associated with plantation of almond orchards in areas of uncropped land. Comparing groundwater changes across various almond land uses, my results suggest that SGMA can have the greatest effect on groundwater protection by limiting water intensive cropscape conversions which will ensure compliance to SGMA objectives.

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