Collection

Groundwater, climate change, adaptation and mitigation

Submission status
Closed
The UN Water theme for 2022 is “Groundwater: making the Invisible Visible”. Important feedback mechanisms exist between groundwater and climate change. For instance, groundwater discharge into rivers and wetlands sustains surface moisture levels that feed back into the atmosphere. Decreasing groundwater discharge and/or water tables can therefore influence the atmospheric processes on decadal and longer time scales. In some areas, groundwater can have residence times of thousands of years, indicating that they recharged under very different climate conditions. In that sense groundwater can act as a memory of climate and climate change. Different time scales (modelling challenge) and limited data for validation (monitoring challenge) are major research tasks in this field. Moreover, aquifers can capture and store large amounts of carbon and nitrogen, and also release them again in discharge zones, influencing the emission and transmission of greenhouse gases. For this special issue we seek manuscripts addressing one or several of the mentioned aspects, focusing on groundwater-climate feedback mechanisms. We also welcome contributions on climate change impacts on groundwater resources and groundwater-related adaptation and mitigation measures.

Editors

  • Tibor Stigter Tibor Stigter

    Tibor Stigter

    Tibor Stigter is Associate Professor of Hydrogeology and Groundwater Resources at the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education (UNESCO Category 2) in The Netherlands. His main areas of expertise are: i) groundwater resources assessment and development in adaptation to climate and global change, and ii) the hydrochemical and geophysical study of groundwater-surface water-wetland interactions and impacts from contamination and salinization. He has over 15 years of experience in research, education and training in projects in Europe, South America, Africa and Asia. He currently coordinates the DUPC2 (Research for Development) SALINPROVE project.

Articles (24 in this collection)