Valuation of water in an aquifer depends on reliable information about the hydrologic conditions of an aquifer. Regions of depression emerge in an aquifer because groundwater cannot seamlessly flow between shallow and deep aquifer locations, and our analysis shows that the degree of lateral flow influences the value of the water in the aquifer. The assumption that groundwater declines uniformly over a landscape, a bathtub aquifer, leads to an underestimate of the value of a unit of water in an aquifer but an overestimate of the wealth that the aquifer represents. For the alluvial aquifer in Arkansas, USA, the average accounting price of water in an aquifer is almost 40% higher if there is no lateral flow, but the groundwater wealth is 10% lower. The value of an aquifer with the limited lateral flow is less sensitive to changes in agricultural markets, the discount rate, or the natural recharge of the aquifer.

中文翻译：

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含水层中的侧向流动对地下水农业价值的影响

含水层中水的价值​​取决于有关含水层水文状况的可靠信息。由于地下水无法在浅层和深层含水层之间无缝流动，因此在含水层中出现了凹陷区域，我们的分析表明，侧向流动的程度会影响含水层中的水的价值。假设地下水在整个景观（浴缸蓄水层）中均匀下降，导致低估了蓄水层中每单位水的价值，但高估了蓄水层所代表的财富。对于美国阿肯色州的冲积含水层，如果没有侧向流动，含水层中水的平均核算价格几乎高出40％，但地下水财富却低10％。