Your search found 3 records
1 Wendt, D. E.; Van Loon, A. F.; Bloomfield, J. P.; Hannah, D. M. 2020. Asymmetric impact of groundwater use on groundwater droughts. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 24(10):4853-4868. [doi: https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-4853-2020]
Groundwater table ; Water use ; Drought ; Monitoring ; Water management ; Groundwater recharge ; Aquifers ; Water extraction ; Precipitation ; Evapotranspiration ; Wells ; Trends ; Case studies / United Kingdom / Lincolnshire / Chilterns / Midlands / Shropshire
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H050094)
https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/24/4853/2020/hess-24-4853-2020.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H050094.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H050094.pdf
(3.28 MB) (3.28 MB)
Groundwater use affects groundwater storage continuously as the removal of water changes both short-term and long-term groundwater level variation. This has implications for groundwater droughts, i.e. a below-normal groundwater level. The impact of groundwater use on groundwater droughts, however, remains unknown. Hence, the aim of this study is to investigate the impact of groundwater use on groundwater droughts in the absence of actual abstraction data. We present a methodological framework that consists of two approaches. The first approach compared groundwater droughts at monitoring sites that are potentially influenced by abstraction to groundwater droughts at sites that are known to be near natural. Observed groundwater droughts were compared in terms of drought occurrence, duration, and magnitude. The second approach investigated long-term trends in groundwater levels in all monitoring wells. This framework was applied to a case study of the UK, using four regional water management units in which groundwater levels are monitored and abstractions are licensed. Results show two asymmetric responses in groundwater drought characteristics due to groundwater use. The first response is an increase in shorter drought events and is found in three water management units where long-term annual average groundwater abstractions are smaller than recharge. The second response, observed in one water management unit where groundwater abstractions temporarily exceeded recharge, is a lengthening and intensification of groundwater droughts. Analysis of long-term (1984–2014) trends in groundwater levels shows mixed but generally positive trends, while trends in precipitation and potential evapotranspiration are not significant. The overall rising groundwater levels are consistent with changes in water use regulations and with a general reduction in abstractions during the period of investigation. We summarised our results in a conceptual typology that illustrates the asymmetric impact of groundwater use on groundwater drought occurrence, duration, and magnitude. The long-term balance between groundwater abstraction and recharge plays an important role in this asymmetric impact, which highlights the relation between short-term and long-term sustainable groundwater use.
2 Sorensen, J. P. R.; Davies, J.; Ebrahim, Girma Y.; Lindle, J.; Marchant, B. P.; Ascott, M. J.; Bloomfield, J. P.; Cuthbert, M. O.; Holland, M.; Jensen, K. H.; Shamsudduha, M.; Villholth, Karen G.; MacDonald, A. M.; Taylor, R. G. 2021. The influence of groundwater abstraction on interpreting climate controls and extreme recharge events from well hydrographs in semi-arid South Africa. Hydrogeology Journal, 29(8):2773-2787. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10040-021-02391-3]
Groundwater extraction ; Groundwater recharge ; Well hydrographs ; Semiarid climate ; Catchment areas ; Groundwater table ; Rain ; River flow ; Stream flow ; Extreme weather events ; El Nino-Southern Oscillation ; Hydrogeology ; Boreholes ; Spatial distribution ; Land use / South Africa / Limpopo / Mogalakwena Catchment / Sand River Catchment
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H050671)
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10040-021-02391-3.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H050671.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H050671.pdf
(6.26 MB) (6.26 MB)
There is a scarcity of long-term groundwater hydrographs from sub-Saharan Africa to investigate groundwater sustainability, processes and controls. This paper presents an analysis of 21 hydrographs from semi-arid South Africa. Hydrographs from 1980 to 2000 were converted to standardised groundwater level indices and rationalised into four types (C1–C4) using hierarchical cluster analysis. Mean hydrographs for each type were cross-correlated with standardised precipitation and streamflow indices. Relationships with the El Nino– Southern Oscillation (ENSO) were also investigated. The four hydrograph types show a transition of autocorrelation over increasing timescales and increasingly subdued responses to rainfall. Type C1 strongly relates to rainfall, responding in most years, whereas C4 notably responds to only a single extreme event in 2000 and has limited relationship with rainfall. Types C2, C3 and C4 have stronger statistical relationships with standardised streamflow than standardised rainfall. C3 and C4 changes are significantly (p < 0.05) correlated to the mean wet season ENSO anomaly, indicating a tendency for substantial or minimal recharge to occur during extreme negative and positive ENSO years, respectively. The range of different hydrograph types, sometimes within only a few kilometres of each other, appears to be a result of abstraction interference and cannot be confidently attributed to variations in climate or hydrogeological setting. It is possible that high groundwater abstraction near C3/C4 sites masks frequent small-scale recharge events observed at C1/C2 sites, resulting in extreme events associated with negative ENSO years being more visible in the time series.
3 Wendt, D. E.; Bloomfield, J. P.; Van Loon, A. F.; Garcia, M.; Heudorfer, B.; Larsen, J.; Hannah, D. M. 2021. Evaluating integrated water management strategies to inform hydrological drought mitigation. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 21(10):3113-3139. [doi: https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-3113-2021, 2021]
Water management ; Integrated management ; Water resources ; Strategies ; Drought ; Hydrological factors ; Mitigation ; Water availability ; Water demand ; Water use ; Water supply ; Surface water ; Groundwater recharge ; Drinking water ; Precipitation ; Reservoirs ; Meteorological factors ; Policies ; Soil moisture ; Case studies ; Models / England
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H050708)
https://nhess.copernicus.org/articles/21/3113/2021/nhess-21-3113-2021.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H050708.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H050708.pdf
(6.32 MB) (6.32 MB)
Managing water–human systems during water shortages or droughts is key to avoid the overexploitation of water resources and, in particular, groundwater. Groundwater is a crucial water resource during droughts as it sustains both environmental and anthropogenic water demand. Drought management is often guided by drought policies, to avoid crisis management, and actively introduced management strategies. However, the impact of drought management strategies on hydrological droughts is rarely assessed. In this study, we present a newly developed socio-hydrological model, simulating the relation between water availability and managed water use over 3 decades. Thereby, we aim to assess the impact of drought policies on both baseflow and groundwater droughts. We tested this model in an idealised virtual catchment based on climate data, water resource management practices and drought policies in England. The model includes surface water storage (reservoir), groundwater storage for a range of hydrogeological conditions and optional imported surface water or groundwater. These modelled water sources can all be used to satisfy anthropogenic and environmental water demand. We tested the following four aspects of drought management strategies: (1) increased water supply, (2) restricted water demand, (3) conjunctive water use and (4) maintained environmental flow requirements by restricting groundwater abstractions. These four strategies were evaluated in separate and combined scenarios. Results show mitigated droughts for both baseflow and groundwater droughts in scenarios applying conjunctive use, particularly in systems with small groundwater storage. In systems with large groundwater storage, maintaining environmental flows reduces hydrological droughts most. Scenarios increasing water supply or restricting water demand have an opposing effect on hydrological droughts, although these scenarios are in balance when combined at the same time. Most combined scenarios reduce the severity and occurrence of hydrological droughts, given an incremental dependency on imported water that satisfies up to a third of the total anthropogenic water demand. The necessity for importing water shows the considerable pressure on water resources, and the delicate balance of water–human systems during droughts calls for short-term and long-term sustainability targets within drought policies.
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