GSI helped develop the Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) for the San Luis Obispo Valley Groundwater Basin.
The San Luis Obispo Valley Groundwater Basin is a high-priority basin with significant agricultural land use. GSI provided technical support for the development of the basin’s GSP. GSI led groundwater modeling efforts, developing a transient integrated surface water/groundwater model using the public domain modeling platform GSFLOW. We led the effort to collect and organize hydrogeologic data—including cross sections, hydrographs, groundwater elevation maps, and water quality data—and communicated this technical information at public stakeholder meetings. Our contributions also included developing the sustainable management criteria (minimum thresholds and measurable objectives) and working with basin stakeholders during public meetings and workshops to achieve consensus on GSP goals that will help achieve sustainability in the Basin by 2042. The GSP was approved by the California Department of Water Resources in April 2023.
GSI's work involved: