Final answer:
Drawdown is the vertical distance between the original water table and the current water level in a well. The cone of depression is the inverted cone-shaped area of lowered water levels around a pumping well. Maintaining the original water table level is vital to avoiding environmental and geological issues.
Step-by-step explanation:
The relationship between drawdown and the cone of depression is that drawdown, as measured in the well, is the vertical distance between the original water table and the current water level in the well. The cone of depression is the shape of the lowered water table surrounding a pumping well. As water is extracted, the water table around the well is drawn down, forming a cone-shaped area of lower water levels. This occurs because groundwater moves toward the well from all directions to replace the water being pumped out, resulting in a depression in the water table that looks like an inverted cone.
Maintaining the original level of the water table is critical to the ecosystem because significant changes can lead to environmental issues such as groundwater mining, saltwater intrusion, disruption of surface waters like rivers and lakes, and possible geological disturbances like subsidence and sinkholes.