Combining a land surface model with groundwater model calibration to assess the impacts of groundwater pumping in a mountainous desert basin

•A novel approach combining an integrated surface/subsurface model and a groundwater parameter-estimation model, was able to better constrain the model.•The groundwater system may be nearing, if not exceeding, its sustainable groundwater production capacity and the speed of recovery is not indicative of sustainability.•Results from using conventionally-assumed uniform recharge distort calibrated K fields and impacts assessment