The huge Idagon Aquifer has a single discharge point at Big Springs. Historians tell us that Big Springs flow was around 6 MAF/year in the decades prior to irrigated agriculture. But the discharge has increased over several decades with the development of irrigated agriculture in Area 1. (Percolation water from the fields and the delivery canals contribute to the ground water storage). Big Springs flow is now around 10 MAF/year.

The Big Springs flow changes very little from one month to another because the ground water conditions do not change significantly during a year. Big Springs flow may change over several years (or several decades), however, depending on the long term changes in flows into an out of the aquifer.

The large flow at Big Springs is considered important for the region. (The flow is important for both water quality and for "fish farms" that have developed below the discharge point.) One of the six goals for the Idagon is to maintain the flow at Big Springs at 9 MAF/year or higher.

To monitor the discharge flow at Big Springs when running the model, you may open the graphs:
"Flow_at_Big_Springs" or "Ground_Water_Flows"
during the course of a simulation.

And if you are using an advanced version of the cockpit, you may monitor how the discharge at Big Springs would be influenced by land development in Area 2 where irrigation water is pumped from the aquifer. To see the "impact," you would add new land to Area 2 (under the "Land Development Program" decisions) and use the "Ground_Water_Impact" graph to learn how long we must wait for the full impact of the additional pumping to show up as a reduction in Big Springs flow.