They Built Berms and Swales on a Recharge Zone. Here's What the Data Shows (so far).
The Edwards Aquifer Authority isn't just managing the Edwards Aquifer, they're actively studying whether the land management practices that landowners and companies like Symbiosis build every day actually move the needle for recharge. This episode is where the science gets real.
In episode two, we head out to the EAA's Field Research Park, a 151-acre property outside San Antonio where the team has installed berms, swales, and native plantings alongside a dense array of scientific instrumentation, pressure transducers, soil sensors, electrical resistivity tomography, and nuclear magnetic resonance tools, to build a rigorous, long-term data set on how these practices affect subsurface moisture, infiltration, and ultimately aquifer recharge. The early data is promising. Whether it becomes proof is a question that may take decades to answer.
We also go deep on how drought is defined from a groundwater perspective, why infiltrated water doesn't automatically mean recharge, the relationship between soil organic matter and water holding capacity, and why the EAA views healthy riparian zones and land stewardship as central to the long-term health of the system.
This video was made in partnership with the Edwards Aquifer Authority, the regulatory and research agency responsible for managing the Edwards Aquifer across its central segment, from Uvalde County to Hays County. The EAA oversees groundwater permits, monitors water quality, manages critical period drought restrictions, and conducts ongoing field research to better understand how land management affects recharge and aquifer health.
0:00 — Introduction
1:27 — Welcome to Episode Two
2:03 — Series recap and what this episode covers
2:40 — About the Field Research Park
3:30 — A note from the editor
4:32 — Berms and swales: how they work and why the EAA built them here
6:58 — How the EAA measures subsurface moisture and infiltration
9:08 — Defining drought from a groundwater perspective
11:41 — Why a wetter year makes land stewardship even more important
12:56 — The instrumentation: pressure transducers and soil sensors explained
14:46 — Soil water potential and what it tells us
16:32 — Soil organic matter, water holding capacity, and recharge
17:53 — Infiltration vs. recharge: why they aren't the same thing
21:45 — Electrical resistivity tomography and what the data shows
25:21 — Nuclear magnetic resonance and combining data sets
27:19 — Organic matter, evapotranspiration, and the water cycle
28:05 — Stormwater mitigation and the Scar Project
29:33 — Long-term thinking: building structures that last generations
30:47 — Outro