Well-Withdrawal Footprint Mapping

When showing how much groundwater is being pumped from wells, maps often use circles at each well location. The size of each circle represents how much water is being pumped—the bigger the circle (area), the more water.

However, when wells are close together, their circles can overlap, underrepresenting the total amount of water being pumped. To fix this, a tool called WellFootprint was created. It improves the map in two main ways:

1. Combining Nearby Wells: If wells are close together, their circles are merged into one irregular shape called a "footprint." This footprint shows the total amount of water being pumped, combining areas of closely spaced circles.
2. Meaningful Scaling: The size of each footprint can be adjusted based on a chosen water-related measure—like how much water naturally refills the area (called recharge). This can help understand whether the amount of water being pumped is sustainable compared to that recharge rate.

To make these maps, you only need three things: the locations of the wells, how much water each one pumps, and a chosen scale (like the recharge rate). Maps can be created using a groundwater-modeling tool called ModelMuse that provides input to, and displays output from WellFootprint, which calculates the footprints.

Important Note: These maps do not show where the water comes from underground (capture zones) or how it moves. They only show how much water is being pumped at each location, relative to the user-defined scale, such as recharge.