The Water Budget Myth Revisited: Why Hydrogeologists Model

Within the ground water community, the idea persists that if one can estimate the recharge to a ground water system, one then can determine the size of a sustainable development. Theis addressed this idea in 1940 and showed it to be wrong-yet the myth continues. The size of a sustainable ground water development usually depends on how much of the discharge from the system can be "captured" by the development. Capture is independent of the recharge; it depends on the dynamic response of the aquifer system to the development. Ground water models were created to study the response dynamics of ground water systems; it is one of the principal reasons hydrogeologists model.