For decades, one of the most critical elements of American infrastructure—groundwater wells—remained stubbornly unmapped at scale. Despite their essential role in powering agriculture, supplying drinking water, and supporting environmental resilience, no centralized, spatially accurate national dataset existed. Until now.

A research team at Virginia Tech aggregated over 14 million well records from 48 state agencies and georeferenced them using Regrid’s nationwide parcel data. They built the first integrated, parcel-level map of groundwater wells across the lower 48 states.

The problem was fragmentation

Groundwater access influences where and how we grow food, build homes, and plan infrastructure. But the underlying data was scattered—locked in PDFs, handwritten notes, and legacy databases with missing or inaccurate coordinates. Most records lacked ownership data or standardized land use classifications.

Without a consistent spatial framework, well data was effectively unusable at scale.

The goal was clarity

The Virginia Tech team saw an opportunity to fill this gap. They set out to create a searchable, mappable, analysis-ready database that could support everything from drought modeling and utility planning to ESG risk assessment and agtech market targeting.

To make it work, they had to:

• Clean and standardize millions of well records
• Geolocate each well with spatial accuracy
• Link each record to land use and ownership
• Enable consistent analysis across states and sectors

Regrid made it possible

Regrid’s nationwide parcel dataset—covering over 150 million parcels across all 50 states—provided the spatial scaffolding the researchers needed.

Using Regrid’s Premium Schema, the researchers gained:

• Standardized parcel geometries and IDs for geolocation
• Ownership and land use data for contextual analysis
• A consistent data model that worked across thousands of counties

With this foundation, the team aligned over 14 million wells to parcels and extracted metadata to enable a nationwide apples-to-apples comparisons.

“Regrid helped us geospatially link millions of wells to real properties—something never done at this scale.”
— Landon Marston, Virginia Tech

The data became usable

Many well records began as non-digital or unstructured files. The researchers cleaned, validated, and indexed them into a functional groundwater infrastructure dataset—one that was searchable by location, ownership, and land use.

The resulting model revealed:

• Who owns groundwater access—by property, region, and use type
• Regional disparities in infrastructure and water equity
• Patterns in agricultural vs. residential or industrial water use

This level of resolution had never been possible before.

The use cases are growing

For the first time, groundwater infrastructure is accessible for real-world analysis:

• Utilities and infrastructure firms can evaluate water access for expansion planning
• Agtech and irrigation firms can assess market opportunities by well density and land use
• ESG analysts and insurers can factor groundwater access into risk models
• Developers and land investors can evaluate water feasibility before site acquisition

This project effectively transformed a compliance and regulatory archive into a strategic planning tool.

The timing is critical

Climate change is amplifying drought, fire risk, and resource competition. Access to reliable groundwater is now a frontline issue in agriculture, real estate, and environmental governance. Without standardized data, these risks are difficult to identify and mitigate.

With Regrid’s parcel fabric, Virginia Tech didn’t just build a database. They created a new foundation for how we understand and manage water access—property by property, coast to coast.

Ready to learn more about how Regrid data can work for you? Visit our Data With Purpose program to submit an application for your organization today.