EGU2022: HS8.1.7 Climate change and groundwater: impacts, adaptation and opportunities
Dee Kay
We welcome your abstract, submission deadline: 12 January 2022, 13:00 CET
Climate change is one of the most important challenges humankind faces today. Groundwater has been an important buffer against climate variability for millennia, providing a secure water supply globally. Despite the important potential role of groundwater storage in climate change adaptation strategies, this role and the actual impact of climate change on groundwater resources remain highly uncertain. The pathways through which changes in natural (e.g., evaporation, transpiration and rainfall) and human factors (e.g., groundwater abstractions, water management strategies) impact groundwater resources are only partially understood due to the complexity and the many (unknown) feedback mechanisms of the atmosphere-land-subsurface system, including humans as an agent. Therefore, this session focuses on: How are different groundwater-related processes affected by climate change, and how do they impact groundwater resources? How to implement climate change in our groundwater studies to predict its impact? How to design and assess potential (ground)water management strategies to increase resilience?
We are inviting presentations taking up these challenges and with a particular interest in process-based analysis and models. We especially encourage (but do not limit to) contributions on the following topics:
Impact of climate change:
- on groundwater recharge (e.g. through changes in rainfall, evaporation, transpiration, etc.).
- on salinity and water availability in coastal aquifers due to sea-level changes and dilution.
- on groundwater extremes (both droughts and high groundwater levels).
- on changes in dilution potential or leaching potential for contaminants, including pesticides and nutrients.
Human impacts on and management of groundwater resources under a changing climate:
- Impacts of groundwater abstractions, land-use changes, river regulation
- Groundwater-surface water management strategies
Feedback between groundwater and climate through coupled models:
- Methodologies showcasing how to implement climate change into subsurface models, including uncertainties of the projections.
- Comparative studies using different approaches/models to study climate change impacts.
This session is co-organized by the Commission on Groundwater and Climate Change (CGCC) of the IAH.
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Okke Batelaan
Strategic Professor Hydro(geo)logy
Chief Investigator, National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training (NCGRT)
College of Science & Engineering, Flinders University
IST-319
http://www.flinders.edu.au/people/okke.batelaan
http://publicationslist.org/okke.batelaan
https://twitter.com/OkkeBatelaan
Editor-in-Chief Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies
Associate Editor Journal of Hydrology