Applying a science-forward approach to groundwater regulatory design

Groundwater sustainability is challenged by the difference between legal and scientific understanding of groundwater, as well as the lack of focused attention to regulatory design in the literature on groundwater institutions, governance and management. The purpose of this paper is to use the scientific characteristics of groundwater to direct the necessary elements of regulatory design for this unique element. Developing interdisciplinary language that could be applied in any jurisdiction or region, the article describes seven groundwater characteristics as processes, functions, qualities, physical sustainability, scale, information and data, and physical state. Using these characteristics of groundwater embeds the scientific understanding of groundwater into regulatory design and enables the expression of new values such as Indigenous rights to water. Applying these scientific characteristics to a case study of new groundwater regulation in a subnational jurisdiction in the Global North—British Columbia (BC), Canada—highlights the failure of regulatory design even in a well-resourced jurisdiction where environmental regulation is the norm. Groundwater in BC is extremely heterogeneous in process and function, with low observation density and undefined sustainability goals where regulations are applied uniformly. Looking forward, three recommendations can be drawn using the scientific characteristics of groundwater to improve regulatory design in BC: defining sustainability goals and ecological thresholds; regionalizing and prioritizing; and long-term planning. This science-forward and interdisciplinary approach has implications for states with customary water entitlements and multiple legal orders. It also provides practitioners with an interdisciplinary language that can be useful for assessing current and future regulatory design.