Seven key Victorian groundwater systems were recently assessed as being at their "lowest (level) on record and falling" as at May 2008.

A further seven were described as "below average and falling" in the recent State Government report.

Many of Victoria's ground water storages — or aquifers — will be depicted in three-dimensional aquifer maps in a series of projects to get a better understanding of the increasingly stressed resources.

The leader of one of the mapping projects, Bruce Gill from the Department of Primary Industries, said the research would allow water authorities to better assess where groundwater users are and how aquifers refill.

The drought has led to a surge in demand for groundwater licences from agricultural and other users, including urban gardeners.

Victoria has an estimated 80,000 stock and domestic bores, with demand more than doubling in some parts of the state.

Garden-loving Melburnians continue to install them, despite the fact they have no livestock.

Statistics from Southern Rural Water indicate that more than 600 people from Melbourne and surrounds, Mornington Peninsula and Geelong applied to Southern Rural Water for a "stock and domestic" bore in 2007-08.

The overwhelming majority of applications were approved.

Graham Hawke, of Southern Rural Water, said that before Melburnians faced water restrictions, it received only about 15 such applications per year.