A review of open data for studying global groundwater in social–ecological systems
Bibliographic Data
Global data have served an integral role in characterizing large-scale groundwater systems, identifying their sustainability challenges, and informing on socioeconomic and ecological dimensions of groundwater. These insights have revealed groundwater as a dynamic component of the water cycle and social–ecological systems, leading to an expansion in groundwater science that increasingly focuses on groundwater’s interactions with ecological, socioeconomic, and Earth systems. This shift presents many opportunities that are conditional on broader, more interdisciplinary system conceptualizations, models, and methods that require the integration of a greater diversity of data in contrast to conventional hydrogeological investigations. Here, we catalogue 144 global open access datasets and dataset collections relevant to groundwater science that span elements of the hydrosphere, biosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere, food systems, governance, management, and other socioeconomic system dimensions. The assembled catalogue offers a reference of available data for use in interdisciplinary assessments, and we summarize these data across their primary system, spatial resolution, temporal range, data type, generation method, level of groundwater representation, and institutional location of lead authorship. The catalogue includes 15 groundwater datasets, 23 datasets derived in relation to groundwater, and 106 datasets associated with groundwater. We find the majority of datasets are temporally static and that temporally dynamic data peak in availability during the 2000–2010 decade. Only a small fraction of temporally dynamic data is derived with any direct representation of groundwater, highlighting the need for greater incorporation of groundwater in Earth system models and data collection initiatives across socioeconomic, governance, and environmental science research communities. A small number of countries, led by the USA, Germany, the Netherlands, and Canada, generate most global groundwater data, reflecting a global North bias in the institutional leadership of these data generation activities. We raise three priority themes for future global groundwater data initiatives, which include: data improvements through prioritizing observed and temporally dynamic data; elevating regional and local scale data and perspectives to address challenges relating to equity and bias; and advancing data sharing initiatives founded on reciprocal benefits between global initiatives and data providers
Biosphere · Earth science · Earth system science · Environmental resource management · Geography · Groundwater · Hydrogeology · Hydrosphere · Socioeconomic status · Sociology · Sustainability · Environmental Science · Flood Risk Assessment and Management · Groundwater and Isotope Geochemistry · Hydrology and Watershed Management Studies · Ecology · Geology
Governing the Commons
The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods for Social-Ecological Systems
Groundwater use for irrigation – a global inventory
Groundwater depletion embedded in international food trade
The Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISI–MIP)
Tmap
Operationalizing the Care and Fair Principles for Indigenous data futures
Nonsustainable groundwater sustaining irrigation
Essential Biodiversity Variables
Putting people in the map
Ten facts about land systems for sustainability
The Care Principles for Indigenous Data Governance
Global depletion of groundwater resources
A General Framework for Analyzing Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems
The PRISMA 2020 statement
The Fair Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship
People and water
Uncertainty in model estimates of global groundwater depth
Measuring global water security towards sustainable development goals
Groundwater — a global focus on the ‘local resource’
Essential ecosystem service variables for monitoring progress towards sustainability
Transformations to groundwater sustainability
Operationalizing ambiguity in sustainability science
Understanding the North–South knowledge divide and its implications for policy
Mapping global land system archetypes
Categorisation of typical vulnerability patterns in global drylands
Indigenous Data Sovereignty in the Era of Big Data and Open Data
An expert-based reference list of variables for characterizing and monitoring social-ecological systems
Social-ecological system framework
Understanding social-ecological change and transformation through community perceptions of system identity
Plausible futures of a social-ecological system
Social tipping points in global groundwater management
Social-ecological systems as complex adaptive systems
Capturing emergent phenomena in social-ecological systems
River basins as social-ecological systems
Comparison of Frameworks for Analyzing Social-ecological Systems
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |