Groundwater-connected art: Practicing arts-based research to enrich how hydrogeology engages people, place, and other disciplines

Abstract Groundwater depletion, contamination and governance challenges persist despite decades of research. Scientific methods are crucial yet seem insufficient to inspire the emotional, cultural and community connections needed for real change—groundwater challenges and opportunities may not be reaching enough hearts and minds. This perspective article invites a bold shift: integrating arts-based research into hydrogeology. Hydrogeologists, in collaboration with social scientists, artists, and communities, might spark more powerful connections to groundwater by blending art forms such as drama, visual art, storytelling, and music with scientific practice. This article unfolds through a series of invitations spanning art, community engagement and learning from related disciplines that have embraced arts-based research. I introduce the concept of groundwater-connected art as both process and expression, expanding how groundwater could be represented and understood. Examples across artistic practices exist and could be expanded through expressions of groundwater tastes, smells, sounds, landscapes, cultures, and connections in community and into the future. Arts-based research offers methods to bridge gaps across disciplines, strengthen participatory and community-engaged approaches, elevate cultural and relational dimensions of groundwater, and align with emerging priorities in socio-hydrogeology. Integrating art is not without challenges, including questions of role, rigor, ethics and positionality, but creative processes could make hydrogeology more human, equitable and impactful. This article invites hydrogeologists to embrace creativity and collaboration with artists, social scientists, and communities—which could change how we engage with, value and care for this often invisible resource.