Abstract
Adequate availability of groundwater resource is an indispensable component for the sustainable growth of society and human civilization. Groundwater is the largest source of accessible freshwater resources and as per estimates made, it supplies drinking water to ~36% of world population and ~42% of water used for irrigation (Taylor et al. 2013). According to recent estimates by various surveys (e.g. Shiklomanov 1993), of the 1.4 billion cubic km water available on earth, 2.5% of it is available as freshwater. Of all the freshwater available, 10 million cubic km is estimated to be groundwater which is essential for food security for both developing and developed countries. According to International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports documented since last 20 years (IPCC Report 1996, 1998, 2001, 2008, 2014), the impact of climate change on water cycle including groundwater as an indispensable component is largely uncertain. Very few studies have taken the matter in a holistic way that includes groundwater as an explicit variable. Hence the question: “What is the impact of climate change on groundwater resource?” is yet to be quantified for societal impact studies e.g. chapter 3 of IPCC Report (2014). Any natural resource can be extracted for continuous usage only when the supply is replenished adequately. Hence it is undeniable that extensive usage of groundwater for drinking, agricultural as well as industrial use is sustainable only if the recharge of groundwater is maintained at a constant pace.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Asoka, A., Gleeson, T., Wada, Y. and Mishra, V. (2017). Relative contribution of monsoon precipitation and pumping to changes in groundwater storage in India. Nat Geosci, 10: 109–117. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2869.
Balek, J. (1988). Estimation of Natural Groundwater Recharge, I. Simmers (Ed.). Springer.
CGWB (2007). Manual on Artificial Recharge of Ground Water. Government of India, New Delhi.
GISSTEMP Team (2016). http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/. In: NASA GISS. http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/.
Gleick, P.H. and Adams, D.B. (2000). Water: The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change for the Water Resources of the United States. USGS, Washington D.C.
Goswami, B.N., Venugopal, V., Sengupta, D. et al. (2006). Increasing Trend of Extreme Rain Events over India in a Warming Environment. Science, 314: 1442–1445. doi: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1132027.
Hansen, J., Ruedy, R., Sato, M. and Lo, K. (2010). Global Surface Temperature Change. Rev Geophys, 48: RG4004. doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2010RG000345.
IGES-GWP (2012). Technical Report on Issues related to Water and Agriculture in South Asia. IGES-GWP, Hamaya (Japan).
IPCC Report (1996). Climate Change 1995, Impacts, adaptations and mitigation of climate change: Scientific-technical analyses. Cambridge University Press, UK, London.
IPCC Report (1998). The Regional Impacts of Climate Change: An Assessment of Vulnerability. Cambridge University Press, UK, London.
IPCC Report (2001). Climate Change 2001, Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Cambridge University Press, UK, London.
IPCC Report (2008). Climate Change and Water. IPCC Technical Paper VI. Cambridge University Press, UK, London.
IPCC Report (2014). Fifth Assessment Report - Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Cambridge University Press, UK, London.
Kumar, C.P. (1997). Estimation of Natural Groundwater Recharge. ISH J Hydraul Eng, 33: 61–74.
Landerer, F.W. and Swenson, S.C. (2012). Accuracy of scaled GRACE terrestrial water storage estimates. Water Resour Res, 48: W04531. doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2011WR011453.
Ministry of Water Resources (2006). Central Ground Water Board. Dynamic Ground Water Resources of India (as on March 2004). Government of India, New Delhi.
Rodell, M., Velicogna, I. and James, S.F. (2009). Satellite-based estimates of groundwater depletion in India. Nature, 460: 999–1002; doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08238.
Sharmila, S., Joseph, S., Sahai, A.K. et al. (2015). Future projection of Indian summer monsoon variability under climate change scenario: An assessment of CMIP5 climate models. Glob Planet Change, 124: 62–78. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2014.11.004.
Shiklomanov, I.A. (1993). World Freshwater Resources in Water in Crisis. Oxford University Press, UK.
Swenson, S. and Wahr, J. (2006). Post-processing removal of correlated errors in GRACE data. Geophys Res Lett, 33: L08402. doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2005GL025285.
Taylor, K.E., Stouffer, R.J. and Meehl, G.A. (2011). An Overview of CMIP5 and the Experiment Design. Bull Am Meteorol Soc, 93: 485–498. doi: https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-11-00094.1.
Taylor, R.G., Scanlon, B., Döll, P. et al. (2013). Ground water and climate change. Nat Clim Change, 3: 322–329. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1744.
UNEP (2008). Freshwater under Threat, South Asia. UNEP-AIT, Nairobi, Kenya.
Watanabe, M., Suzuki, T., O’ishi, R. et al. (2010). Improved Climate Simulation by MIROC5: The Mean States, Variability, and Climate Sensitivity. J Clim, 23: 6312–6335. doi: https://doi.org/10.1175/2010JCLI3679.1.
Xu, C. (2000). Modelling the Effects of Climate Change on Water Resources in Central Sweden. Water Resour Manag, 14: 177–189. doi: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026502114663.
Acknowledgements
RC acknowledges the research support from IITM, an autonomous institute fully supported by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India. Plots are made using NCL-NCAR software and Xmgrace. The work is carried out with facilitation from India-UK Joint water centre (IUKWC). CMIP5 data is directly downloaded from https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/search/cmip5/. GRACE land grid data are available at http://grace.jpl.nasa.gov, supported by the NASA MEaSUREs Program. For information on GRACE NetCDF data used here, website documentation following is referred http://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/TELLUS_LAND_NC_RL05. India Meteorological Department, Pune office (IMD) has provided the gridded rainfall data used in this study. The authors would also like to thank Prof. P.K. Sikdar, Department of Environment Management, IISWBM, Kolkata for providing constructive comments and suggestions which improved the manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Capital Publishing Company, New Delhi, India
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Chattopadhyay, R., Chakraborty, S., Sahai, A.K. (2019). Impact of Climatic Stress on Groundwater Resources in the Coming Decades Over South Asia. In: Sikdar, P. (eds) Groundwater Development and Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75115-3_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75115-3_17
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-75114-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-75115-3
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)