a) Land subsistence in the SW US has been getting worse for many reasons. One big reason is their locations, with them not being near lakes and basically being in the desert. This forces them to use the groundwater. Another one is their lack of precipitation. Without much rain, places in those areas don't get lakes or dykes where water will build up. Another one is the growing population in those areas. More people means more water being used. Finally, the water being used is being wasted by silly things like watering your lawn or in the toilet.
b) The impacts of this are pretty worrying. Impacts by this would include change of the elevation in certain areas (ie the land dropping), failure of well casings because of forces by compaction, damage to buildings and damage to other things like roads, bridges, sewers and railroads.
c) Some ways I believe that these areas can lower future land subsistence is by using less water from their aquifers, creating lakes in the not as hot areas of the area, and recycling used water to be used again.
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