Impact of Land Use and Infrastructure on Groundwater Recharge

The field of groundwater science is increasingly focused on understanding how human activities and infrastructure alter natural recharge processes. Growing urbanization, alongside expanding agricultural practices and shifting land-cover patterns like deforestation and afforestation, are profoundly restructuring groundwater recharge pathways. These changes modulate infiltration rates and water availability, while water infrastructure interventions, such as irrigation systems and stormwater networks, can either impede or enhance recharge depending on their design and operation. Current uncertainties stem from the complex interactions among land use, climate variability, and hydrogeological context. Recent advances, including dense observational well networks, high-resolution land-cover and satellite data (GRACE/GRACE-FO, InSAR), and the application of machine-learning models, have enabled more robust quantification and attribution of anthropogenic versus meteorological impacts, yet significant gaps remain in understanding spatial heterogeneity, long-term trends, and operational outcomes for water security.

This Research Topic aims to advance scientific knowledge on how various forms of land use and water infrastructure—from urban impervious surfaces to agricultural return flow, and from network leakage to managed aquifer recharge—reshape the timing, magnitude, and spatial patterns of groundwater recharge under diverse climatic and hydrogeologic conditions. The overarching goal is to move beyond attribution, offering actionable insights by clarifying human versus climatic signals, quantifying impacts, and evaluating the effectiveness and risks of interventions. Submissions should employ transparent research designs, leverage multi-scale observational and modeling tools, and generate outputs that inform planning, design, and policy—such as critical site selection, design thresholds, risk assessments, and governance frameworks.

To gather further insights into the intersection of human activity, infrastructure, and groundwater recharge, we welcome articles focused within the boundaries of quantifying, attributing, and managing recharge impacts in varied contexts and with robust methodologies. The scope is intentionally broad but excludes purely speculative studies or those lacking empirical support. Articles may address, but are not limited to, the following themes:

- The role of urban systems, including imperviousness, stormwater management, network leakage, water reuse, and integration of blue-green infrastructure
- Impacts of agricultural systems, with an emphasis on irrigation practices, conjunctive use, return flow, and pumping–recharge interactions
- Land-cover change influences, such as deforestation and afforestation effects on infiltration, evapotranspiration, soils, and recharge pathways
- Design, operation, and governance of managed aquifer recharge, with consideration of hydrogeologic suitability, water quality, monitoring, and equity
- Advanced methods for quantifying recharge, including field tracers, vadose zone monitoring, coupled hydrologic models, remote sensing (e.g., GRACE/GRACE-FO, InSAR), and machine learning/deep learning for impact attribution and prediction, with explicit uncertainty analysis

Appendix: We invite a range of contributions including original research articles, reviews, methods papers, case studies, and perspectives or policy analyses.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Groundwater Recharge; urbanization; agriculture; deforestation; managed Aquifer Recharge; Water Infrastructure; Machine Learning; Water Security

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.