California's agricultural sector supports a global food chain. This industry is enabled by a vast network of surface water supplies and stressed groundwater resources, which enable year-round irrigation of water-intensive crops such as pistachios, almonds, and rice. Due to the 2007-2009 and 2012-2016 droughts, there has been renewed interest in statewide groundwater management, culminating in the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). However, the nexus of agricultural water consumption of specific crops and their spatially explicit economic value remains unexplored. Openly accessible data for these outcomes are not centrally stored, are spatially and temporally disparate, and have not yet been synthesized for a critical analysis of the groundwater footprint of agriculture in the state.

We derive a unique dataset of the estimated economic value of groundwater and surface water used for irrigation, at the county, basin, and sub-basin scales. For the study period of 2007-2017, we synthesize remote sensing, spatial, and tabular data on crop identity, water footprints, and economic value. This synthesis allows us to study trends in crop water consumption, drought resilience responses, and value impacts. A case study of the Delta-Mendota sub-basin provides further insight into historical trends in agricultural groundwater consumption, crop portfolios, and crop switching practices during drought and recovery periods. This dataset can help various stakeholders weigh the economic and environmental costs and benefits of crop- and basin-level groundwater management decisions. It is also expected to improve the current methodology used to prioritize groundwater basins for conservation, and thus inform long-term goals set by basin-level Groundwater Sustainability Agencies under SGMA.