Climate Change: Groundwater and Latest Report
Climate Change and Groundwater
On a global scale, water levels are rising. The author of a recent Spiegel article claims that the effects of increasing saltwater intrusion has been neglected so far. Well… the US National Groundwater Association (NGWA) has saltwater intrusion covered since quite a while in their list of “Current and potential impacts of climate change” (part of this document). However, the author continues to mention that guys at Ohio State modelled how far saltwater extends from an ocean’s shore inland. And they found out that saltwater stretches further under continents than one has thought before.
Another point the author makes, one that I completely agree with, is that people don’t see the effects that global climate change has on groundwater resources. And people depend largely on groundwater. The author quotes a number from the USGS, according to which half of the US population derives its drinking water from groundwater
Latest UN Report
The latest UN report regarding Climate Change (and here) is a summary of the three reports that were published earlier this year. This summary will be the basis for discussion at the climate conference in Bali in December. Generally, the pictures painted in this summary-report are fairly dark: inundations, draughts, infectious diseases are all going to increase in magnitude and frequency.
Well, it’s a surprise for me, that saltwater intrusion is neglected in the IPCC report. In the projects we run we have had at least three case studies discussing also the subject of saltwater intrusion into groundwater. Although maybe not properly assessed and modeled so far the problem is well known. Especially in aquifers close to the shore it is often already an existing thread (caused by overpumping and land subsidence) only aggravated by accelerated SLR due to climate change.
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18 Nov 07 at 1:45 pm