Incentivizing Groundwater Recharge: A Berkeley Law Symposium

Groundwater aquifers continue to be depleted as pumping exceeds recharge in many regions of the world, adversely affecting human and environmental systems. Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) is one crucial strategy to bringing these groundwater resources into sustainable balance. However, understanding is sorely lacking about how to effectively incentivize MAR, and how to navigate the institutions relevant to MAR.

This symposium will seek to fill these knowledge gaps, addressing key questions including: Who benefits from groundwater recharge? What conditions are necessary for a recharge project to succeed? How can implementation be incentivized? How should recharge projects be governed? What emerging and novel techniques hold promise for future MAR?

The symposium aims to move the conversation on MAR forward. To this end, presenters will highlight successful and novel recharge projects from across the U.S.. Experts will also speak to scientific, legal, and management issues in recharge, and how they influence potential incentive schemes. These insights will help inform practitioners and scholars about recharge and chart a path towards developing a broadly applicable framework for enabling recharge.