Fig. 1: Conceptual framework for evaluating Sustainability Plans and spatially assessing stakeholder protection.

a Stakeholder groups and their definitions. b Stakeholder integration scoring components and their definitions. c, d Spatial assessment: for each instance of a stakeholder ((c) well or (d) ecosystem), we identified monitoring wells that were at or within a horizontal distance of ~2.4 km (1.5 miles). Stakeholders nearby monitoring wells were considered covered and were assessed for how well the Sustainability Plan protects the stakeholder from losing access to water as a result of declining groundwater levels. Individual stakeholders not covered by a monitoring well were deemed not protected. For covered wells, protection was determined by comparing the depth of each stakeholder to the minimum threshold established at the nearby monitoring well. If the depth of a stakeholder was equal to or shallower than the minimum threshold at the nearby monitoring well, the stakeholder was not protected.