The advent of the Anthropocene influenced a new groundwater environment. Agricultural irrigation and urbanization dramatically shifted groundwater patterns globally. Climate change will amplify these shifts. Reduced surface water flows in dry regions, and the resulting increase in groundwater extraction exacerbates drought conditions. Increasing rainfall in regions of moisture convergence, coupled with increased impervious surface in urban areas that impedes groundwater recharge, exacerbates flood conditions. Decreasing groundwater levels in some regions, and rising groundwater levels in others, affect surface and groundwater quality through mobilization of microbes, contaminants, and seawater intrusion.Footnote¹

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