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Climate and Groundwater Primer

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Climate Change and Groundwater: Planning and Adaptations for a Changing and Uncertain Future

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Abstract

Climate impacts groundwater quantity mainly through its influences on recharge and the demand for groundwater. Precipitation either infiltrates into the soil, runs off, or ponds on land surface and is lost to subsequent evaporation. Infiltrated water may either percolate to the water table and become aquifer recharge, be held in the soil under capillary pressure as soil moisture, be lost to evaporation from the soil or transpiration by vegetation (referred to collectively as evapotranspiration), or may flow in the unsaturated zone and later discharge to surface waters or land surface (interflow). Groundwater recharge rates are a complex function of both the intensity and duration of rainfall events, soil moisture content, and land surface and soil properties that control initial and equilibrium infiltration rates. The relationships between mean annual rainfall, available water, and aquifer recharge are not linear. Climate change can impact the demand side of the aquifer budgets by increasing the demand for water in general or by reducing the amount of available surface water prompting a shift toward more groundwater pumping

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  1. WSP and Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, FL, USA

    Robert Maliva

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Maliva, R. (2021). Climate and Groundwater Primer. In: Climate Change and Groundwater: Planning and Adaptations for a Changing and Uncertain Future. Springer Hydrogeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66813-6_2

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