Participatory case study maps coastal groundwater degradation feedbacks

Persistent groundwater degradation in a coastal aquifer system along India’s Southwest coast is driven by reinforcing feedbacks linking population pressure, groundwater extraction, saline intrusion and declining water quality, according to a participatory case study. The researchers found that shallow freshwater can persist during parts of the year even while the combined social and hydrological system moves toward greater dependence on an increasingly vulnerable groundwater resource. The study examined how rural coastal communities perceive long-term changes in groundwater and combined that local knowledge with seasonal hydrochemical monitoring.

Its integrated framework joined three tools: Participatory Rural Appraisal, a Causal Loop Diagram and the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response model, commonly called DPSIR. Participatory Rural Appraisal captured community memory of changes in groundwater conditions. The causal diagram translated those accounts into an explicit representation of interacting causes and effects, while DPSIR organized the identified drivers, pressures, states, impacts and responses into a system-level assessment.

Seasonal monitoring was then used to place community observations in a hydrochemical context. The combined analysis identified extraction, saline intrusion and deteriorating water quality as parts of a self-reinforcing sequence. Increased reliance on groundwater extraction contributed to saline intrusion and worsening water quality, and those conditions could support further dependence on groundwater.

Population pressure was also connected to this feedback structure. The case therefore links the aquifer’s physical condition with community behavior and governance responses rather than treating degradation as the result of monitoring data alone. The DPSIR synthesis also exposed a temporal mismatch: socio-hydrological pressures were evolving more quickly than institutional responses.

The study interprets this gap as a feature of the groundwater system that should be considered when diagnosing persistent stress and identifying possible leverage points for governance. Its proposed participatory socio-hydrological framework is intended to make community-held knowledge usable alongside hydrochemical evidence, especially in data-limited coastal regions. Because this was a case study, the evidence concerns one coastal aquifer system and its surrounding communities; the supplied findings do not quantify how widespread the same feedback pattern is elsewhere.

Subject of Research: Participatory diagnosis of persistent groundwater degradation in a coastal aquifer system in southern India

Article Title: Understanding persistent groundwater degradation in coastal communities through a participatory socio-hydrological framework

Article References: Nair, A. M., Anand, A. M. K., Balakrishnan, D., Nair, D. I., & Prasad, G. (2026). Understanding persistent groundwater degradation in coastal communities through a participatory socio-hydrological framework. Discover Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-026-04631-6

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s43621-026-04631-6

Keywords: groundwater degradation, coastal aquifers, saline intrusion, participatory research, socio-hydrology, community knowledge, seasonal monitoring, hydrochemistry, water governance, Southwest India, Understanding, persistent