The Upper Floridan Aquifer (UFA) is among the largest, most productive aquifers in the world and is a vital regional resource shared between Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. The UFA supports productive agricultural and silvicultural industries and provides drinking water to more than 10 million people. A significant portion of the UFA is unconfined in the study region (i.e., not protected by an overlying clay layer, see blue regions in the map below) and thus is both rapidly recharged by typically abundant rainfall and easily polluted by a variety of land uses. As a result, the aquifer faces significant threats to water quality and quantity, which could potentially harm food security, fiber production, and vital ecosystem services.
Facts at a Glance
22
collaborating faculty at four leading research universities across the southeast
33,000+
square miles in the study area, which encompasses the portion of the Upper Floridan Aquifer that underlies the Flint and Suwannee River Basins
5 million
acres in the study area devoted to agricultural production
11 million
acres in the study area are forested
10 million
people rely on the Upper Floridan Aquifer for drinking water
590
miles of rivers in the Flint and Suwannee basins
300+
springs in the river basins
Internal and external challenges to the aquifer include:
- Increased water use to support population and agricultural growth
- Degradation of water quality and habitat
- Varying regulatory standards, policies, and land- and water-use practices that result in uneven resource impacts.
- Climate variability that results in periodic drought
- Agricultural in-migration from more severely drought-stricken areas of the US
- Intensification of silviculture due to increasing international demand for bioenergy products.
Achieving agricultural water security while protecting the region’s water resources and unique ecosystems may require watershed-scale modifications in the management of land and water use in the region. It is important to understand the potential impacts of management changes and how they could alter livelihoods, the regional economy, rural communities, and national food security.
FACETS outcomes help to better understand the social, environmental, and economic trade-offs associated with these potential changes and inform the design of policies and financial incentives that will protect agricultural water security and environmental quality.
