ADWR Provides Water Maps and Data

Sept. 2, 2022

The Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) has recently announced public information resources are now available on a section of its public website devoted to maps and data. Some are new, and others have been available for a while. Eight maps are interactive, which means that either clicking on the map or using the search function will bring up information on the map topic. The map on Community Water Systems (CWS) identifies the water provider for a map location or address, shows the boundaries of its service area, and lists other data about the provider. It also shows the location of the providers’ wells, both active and inactive. Another map gives access to information about the Assured Water Supply status of a development or municipal water provider in the same way.

Maps relating to groundwater include maps on groundwater rights, registered groundwater wells, and Groundwater Site Inventory (GWSI) wells, which are wells that provide ADWR with data they use for water modeling and other functions. The rights map contains information on the type, size, location, and ownership of individual groundwater rights, which may be useful for buyers and sellers of such rights. The map of registered wells can be used to find all the registered wells within a defined area or a specified radius of a specific location. A property owner, for example, can find out about what wells are nearby. GWSI wells are the source of field-verified data, regarding wells and springs, collected by personnel from ADWR's Hydrology Division's Field Services Section, the U.S. Geological Survey, and other co-operating agencies. Tabulated GWSI data are available for download.
 
There are also interactive maps relating to Arizona’s General Stream Adjudications with location dots for claims that have been filed and the delineation by ADWR of ‘subflow zones’ for the San Pedro and Verde Rivers. Wells that draw water from subflow zones are part of the stream adjudications (judicial processes to determine all rights to water from the Gila and Little Colorado Rivers and their tributaries). There is also an interactive map for the Arizona Water Banking Authority that shows where and how the bank has stored water underground.
 
An additional collection of maps is available for download in PDF format. For example, a series of maps show groundwater level change 1993-2013, and another map shows water logging in the Buckeye area. There is also a link to a group of maps showing areas of land subsidence and earth fissuring. Both subsidence (sinking of the land surface) and fissuring (cracks opening) can be caused by groundwater extraction that lowers the water table.
 
The maps are accompanied by data useful for people who work with GIS (geographic information systems) for data analysis and visualization.

ADWR Interactive Maps & Data