Too often we as groundwater scientists are faced with far too little information, even the basics. This occurs with individual wells, all the way up to complete hydrologic basins. With more people using more water more often, and the easier surface water becoming more and more scarce, groundwater is once again becoming the reliable counterweight to the demand. Unfortunately, too often there is too little data to adequately support decision making, or management of this precious resource.
New wells are often installed without adequate documentation on how they were constructed and tested, making routine maintenance and repairs far more difficult. Growth often occurs in remote areas in such a way that simple, basic groundwater information is never collected, such as yearly water levels. The result is trying to repair a well that has all of a sudden become the vital source of water for a community or industry; or trying to manage plummeting groundwater levels when you have no idea where they started, and what they have been doing for the last 20 years.
