Dear Indra, Your question is ...
Published by John R. Ackerman, P.E., P.G., BCEE, F.NSPE, President / Chief Engineer at Twin Oaks Water Systems, Inc.
Dear Indra, Your question is too broad to provide you a succinct answer. When looking at even small, single well removals, a pump test will only give you a "snapshot" view of the available water. To develop a local or regional watershed inventory of water availability you will need to know the (1) the geology of the region; (2) the available recharge rates (basically the entire hydrologic cycle for the region); (3) a reasonable distribution of wells that have documented pumping rates along with depth from surface to top of aquifer; and (4) the ability to perform pump tests to gauge recharge rates for that period (it would be best to conduct separate pump tests during each season.) If you would like to further discuss the concepts entailed contact me at jrackerman@twinoaks.biz.