Answer: b. increased surface water levels
Groundwater is a reservoir of water, in which water accumulates below the earth crust, as the water from sources like rain, river, agricultural irrigation, lakes and ponds seeps through the pores present in the aggregates of soils and rocks.
The sites of groundwater are searched in order to obtain it as water source useful for human consumption. It will limit the amount of stored water, it can reduce the river flow as streams of river can find underground way to be accumulated as groundwater. The spring discharge will liberate the groundwater outside the earth crust, it will lower the amount of water present in the grounds.
The groundwater cannot increase the surface water levels as the water accumulated as groundwater is due to the fact that the surface water seeps down the ground and readily absorbed by the pores present in the soil and the rocks.