A Review on the Evolution of Aquifer Yield Concepts and the Role of these Concepts in Groundwater Management

The sustainability of crucial earth resources, such as groundwater, is a critical issue. Physically sustainable groundwater use is an unavoidable necessity for sustainable development in Iran. In many watersheds, overexploitation and neglecting the reasonable criteria for sustainable use of groundwater have led to the destruction of groundwater-dependent ecosystems as well as many other inevitable losses. Due to the necessity of applying these basic concepts in groundwater management and determining maximum well deepening, in this paper, we assessed the most cited of these concepts during the last century. After examining the historical change in these fundamental concepts, these concepts have been categorized for the use of water resources experts. We found three basic concepts (sustainable yield, safe yield, and Mining Yield) are the most commonly used and the others are defined according to these three concepts. To answer the question of how much water can be extracted from the aquifer, it is needed to explain reasonable and desirable criteria based on these concepts. At the end of the article, in the meta-analysis and summary section, the current approach (executive and scientific) in Iran with the evolution of groundwater management in the world (reviewed in this article) is compared. This comparison indicates that there is a profound gap between groundwater sustainability and the current groundwater management conditions in Iran.