Xander Huggins , Tom Gleeson, Juan Castilla-Rho, Cameron Holley, Viviana Re, James S. Famiglietti

Groundwater resources are connected with social, economic, ecological, and Earth systems. We introduce the framing of groundwater-connected systems to better represent the nature and complexity of these connections in data collection, scientific investigations, governance and management approaches, and education. Groundwater-connected systems are social, economic, ecological, or Earth systems that interact with groundwater, such as irrigated agriculture, groundwater-dependent ecosystems, and cultural relationships to groundwater expressions such as springs and rivers. Groundwater-connected systems are social-ecological systems where interactions lead to complex behaviours such as feedbacks, non-linear processes, multiple stable system states, and path dependency. These complex behaviours are only visible through this integrated systems framing and are not endogenous properties of physical groundwater systems. This framing is syncretic as it aims to provide a common conceptual foundation for the growing disciplines of socio-hydrogeology and eco-hydrogeology. This framing also facilitates better alignment of the groundwater sustainability discourse with emerging sustainability concepts and principles. Doing so provides an understanding of groundwater sustainability as not a state to be reached but rather a challenge characterised by multi-faceted values and preferences that require place-based specification and adaptive management. The groundwater-connected systems framing can underpin a broad, methodologically pluralistic, and community-driven new wave of data collection and analysis, research, governance, management, and education. These developments, together, can invigorate efforts to foster sustainable groundwater futures in the complex systems groundwater is embedded within.