2026 Darcy Lecture: "Groundwater Recharge Regimes are in Flux" with Steven Loheide, Ph.D.

Groundwater Recharge Regimes are in Flux

Groundwater provides drinking water for people, supports agriculture, and sustains healthy ecosystems, but
has been depleted in some regions due to overuse. Groundwater is replenished through the process of groundwater recharge. After precipitation infiltrates into the soil, a portion is returned to the atmosphere
through evapotranspiration, but some may percolate downward until it reaches the water table and recharges
the aquifer. The process of groundwater recharge varies substantially in space and through time due to soil
type, weather conditions, and vegetation. Case studies will be used to illustrate how groundwater recharge
regimes are altered by changes in climate and shifts in land use. Groundwater level responses to recharge
events were used to quantify groundwater recharge rate differences at locations with different land cover.
Numerical modeling was used to diagnose the causes of changing recharge rates and predict the consequences of these changes across a range of environmental settings. A process based understanding of the factors that drive changes in groundwater regimes is critical to sustainable management of groundwater resources under environmental change and avoiding or minimizing unintended consequences of human activities.

About the speaker:
Dr. Steven Loheide is the Distinguished Professor of Water Resources Engineering in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Geological Engineering,Freshwater and Marine Sciences and Water Resource Management at the University of Wisconsin –Madison. He received his BS in Environmental Chemistry and Geology from the University of Northern Iowa MS in Geology from Indiana University. and PhD in Hydrogeology from Stanford University. As an ecohydrologist, Loheide’s research focuses on the interactions between ecological and hydrological processes in natural and built systems with special attention to the role of groundwater.