Groundwater Drawdown Tool
A screening and decision-support tool for BC Water Authorizations staff to estimate drawdown impacts at nearby wells from a proposed groundwater withdrawal, supporting licence application reviews under the Water Sustainability Act.
The tool predicts how much groundwater levels in nearby registered wells (from BC’s GWELLS database) may decline due to a proposed pumping well at a chosen location, using the Cooper-Jacob (1946) distance-drawdown solution.
Screening tool. Results are screening-level estimates intended to be reviewed by a qualified hydrogeologist. This tool is not a replacement for professional assessment.
Who this is for
- Water Officers and support staff running the tool — start with the User Guide.
- Developers maintaining or extending the tool — see the Developer Guide.
What it does
- Place a proposed pumping well by map click, coordinates, or well tag number.
- Query nearby registered wells and aquifer polygons directly from the BC Geographic Warehouse (BCGW).
- Compute predicted drawdown at each nearby well, the Safe Available Drawdown (SAD) of each well, and an at-risk classification.
- Present results as summary tables, a distance-drawdown chart, and a colour-coded map.
- Export the run as CSV, KML, PDF, or a standalone interactive HTML map.