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Climate Change and Groundwater

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Sustaining Groundwater Resources

Part of the book series: International Year of Planet Earth ((IYPE))

Abstract

Human civilisations have for millennia depended on the stability of groundwater resources to survive dry or unreliable climates. While groundwater supplies are buffered against short-term effects of climate variability, they can be impacted over longer time frames through changes in rainfall, temperature, snowfall, melting of glaciers and permafrost and vegetation and land-use changes. Groundwater provides an archive of past climate variation by recording changes in recharge amount or the chemical and isotopic evolutionary history of a groundwater system. For example, in the Sahara desert of North Africa, radiocarbon dating of groundwater shows that a highly arid climate prevailed during the last ice age followed by more humid conditions up until approximately 4000 years ago. In northern America and Europe, massive meltwater recharge of aquifers that occurred as a result of the same ice age approximately 15,000–20,000 years ago has left distinctive stable isotope signatures that remain today. The groundwater response to future climate change will be exacerbated by the heavy reliance that present day societies continue to place on groundwater, and the extensive modifications we have made to natural hydrological regimes. Models of groundwater response to climate change predict both increases and decreases in groundwater recharge and groundwater quality. Outcomes will be dependent on geographic location, and hydrological, biological and behavioural feedback mechanisms as natural systems and human civilisations struggle to cope with both climate change and our increasing demand for water.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Environmental Research, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Kirrawee DC, NSW, Australia

    Catherine E. Hughes, Dioni I. Cendón, Mathew P. Johansen & Karina T. Meredith

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  1. Catherine E. Hughes
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  2. Dioni I. Cendón
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  3. Mathew P. Johansen
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  4. Karina T. Meredith
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Correspondence to Catherine E. Hughes .

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  1. Aberystwyth University, Institute of Geography & Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth, SY23 3DB, United Kingdom

    J. Anthony A. Jones

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Hughes, C.E., Cendón, D.I., Johansen, M.P., Meredith, K.T. (2011). Climate Change and Groundwater. In: Jones, J. (eds) Sustaining Groundwater Resources. International Year of Planet Earth. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3426-7_7

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