| | Optimum Yield: In addition to hydrologic considerations (see Safe Yield and
Practical Sustained Yield), optimum yield accounts for social, economic, and legal factors. Optimum yield may allow short-term, intensive extractions (conscious overdevelopment) or, conversely, no development at all. "Optimum yield is in the realm of the planner; a hydrologist can assist, but the decisions regarding what constitutes optimum yield may be largely nonhydrologic." (U.S. Water Resources Council. 1980. Essentials of Ground-Water Hydrology Pertinent to Water-Resources Planning, Bulletin 16, revised). The ISWS will no longer use this term. Instead, the ISWS elects to use the term Yield and explicity state all conditions and assumptions that stand behind the determination of it. |
