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<p>The Environment Agency monitors groundwater levels across the country at thousands
of locations and uses groundwater models designed to manage water resources, balancing
the needs of both abstractors and the environment. Groundwater models provide current
and future trends of water availability and are used to inform Abstraction Licencing
Strategies used for local water resource management. <br> <br> Over the past 20 years,
groundwater levels in some areas have declined and in other areas increased. Over
relatively short periods of time groundwater levels can vary significantly in response
to environmental factors (particularly rainfall both in terms of overall quantity
and timing) and due to changing abstraction pressures. It should be noted that groundwater
levels in most locations were relatively high in the 2000s due to a period of high
rainfall recharge which caused significant groundwater flooding in some areas and
more recently have been relatively low due to prolonged dry weather. <br> <br> The
Environment Agency’s assessment shows that since 2017 the number of groundwater bodies
with sustainable abstraction has increased from 72% to 73%.</p>
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