Spatio-temporal impact of climate change on the groundwater system

Abstract

Abstract. Given the importance of groundwater for food production and drinking water supply, but also for the survival of groundwater dependent terrestrial ecosystems (GWDTEs) it is essential to assess the impact of climate change on this freshwater resource. In this paper we study with high temporal and spatial resolution the impact of 28 climate change scenarios on the groundwater system of a lowland catchment in Belgium. Our results show for the scenario period 2070-2101 compared with the reference period 1960-1991, a change in annual groundwater recharge between −20 % and +7 %. On average annual groundwater recharge decreases 7 %. In most scenarios the recharge increases during winter but decreases during summer. The altered recharge patterns cause the groundwater level to decrease significantly from September to January. On average the groundwater level decreases about 7 cm with a standard deviation between the scenarios of 5 cm. Groundwater levels in interfluves and upstream areas are more sensitive to climate change than groundwater levels in the river valley. Groundwater discharge to GWDTEs is expected to decrease during late summer and autumn as much as 10 %, though the discharge remains at reference-period level during winter and early spring. As GWDTEs are strongly influenced by temporal dynamics of the groundwater system, close monitoring of groundwater and implementation of adaptive management measures are required to prevent ecological loss.

Shallow aquifer response to climate change scenarios in a small catchment in the Guarani Aquifer outcrop zone

“…Several such studies assessed the impact of climate change on recharge rates (e.g., Neukum and Azzam 2012, Dawes et al 2012, Holman 2006, Eckhardt and Ulbrich 2003, McCallum et al 2010, Raposo et al 2013) and/or on groundwater flow and water table levels (e.g., Dams et al 2012, Kurylyk et al 2014, Toews and Allen 2009. However, no similar investigation was performed for South America's most relevant aquifers such as the Guarani Aquifer.…”

Coupled modeling approach to assess climate change impacts on groundwater recharge and adaptation in arid areas

“…In this case, the impact of reduced pumping would be less on the livelihood of the settlers. Dams et al (2012) argued that the uncertainty in climate change projections is rather high due to the uncertainties in future greenhouse gas emission prediction. The uncertainty is even larger when the climate change projection scenarios are integrated into hydrological models as the uncertainty accumulates at each step of the coupled approach.…”

“…Thus, the multi-model average projection results are applied for each climate variable in the hydrological models (e.g., Serrat-Capdevila et al, 2007;Stoll et al, 2011;Dams et al, 2012;Barron et al, 2012). In our study we only used a single GCM output.…”

A Review of Advances in the Identification and Characterization of Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems Using Geospatial Technologies

“…Recently, the impact of anthropogenic climate change on groundwater and associated ecosystems has received significant attention [15][16][17][18][19][20][21] because aquifers and GDEs are increasingly threatened by local and regional anthropogenic alterations as well as climate change and variability. Alterations in the climate reflected in reduced precipitation and increased evapotranspiration have a detrimental effect on groundwater levels because of the reduction in groundwater recharge and increase in groundwater withdrawals to meet demands.…”