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Dr. Mulligan Abstract

From TTU College of Architecture

The Future of Water (and Society) on the Texas High Plains: A Geographic Perspective

Dr. Kevin Mulligan

Associate Professor of Geography and Director, Center for Geospatial Technology

On the Texas High Plains the Ogallala Aquifer supports one of the most agriculturally productive regions of the world. Although the area is characterized as a semi-arid environment, water drawn from the aquifer is widely used to support large-scale irrigated agriculture, livestock production and rural communities. Thus we find that the landscape and rural economy of West Texas are both strongly dependent upon the aquifer.

To better understand the limits of this groundwater resource, research has been undertaken over the past several years to map the projected usable lifetime of the aquifer in Texas. Given the spatial variability in both the saturated thickness of the aquifer and rates of aquifer depletion, the results from this work show that the usable lifetime varies geographically across the Texas High Plains. In areas where the aquifer is thickest, we find intensive irrigated agriculture and very high rates of aquifer depletion. If these rates of aquifer depletion are projected into the future, the usable lifetime of the aquifer is on the order of 20 to 30 years.

These results have important economic and social implications with respect to the future of West Texas. Looking back, the region has undergone several major socio-economic transitions; from nomadic hunting and gathering, to a vibrant cattle industry, to an economy based on dryland agriculture and, finally, to an economy based upon the irrigated agriculture that we see today. As the aquifer is effectively depleted over the next 20 to 30 years, it is interesting to speculate on what comes next. Given the current political environment, we may be on the verge of a significant socio-economic transition where we begin to move away from an economy based largely on irrigated agricultural toward a more diverse economy based on dryland agriculture and the production of wind energy.

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