Variability of groundwater recharge and its implication for sustainable land use in Austria
Abstract
Water is the natural foundation of life and essential for agricultural production and drinking water supply. In the past, the focus in protecting water resources has been on the assessment of the quantitative and chemical status of surface water and groundwater bodies. However, an essential part of the global water cycle making up some of the largest freshwater resources has received little attention: water in the vadose zone. Climate and land use change are known to alter water fluxes in the vadose zone, and thus groundwater recharge rates. Despite the fact that any change of groundwater recharge would have dramatic impacts on the availability of water, and hence severe economic and ecological consequences, we know little about groundwater recharge rates for Austria. One of the reasons is that it cannot be measured directly, and predictions of hydrological models mainly rely on model assumptions simplifying the physically based processes in soil hydrology, either due to limited computational time, unsolved issues with upscaling local process information or lack of data on soil hydraulic properties. Moreover, uncertainties with model calibration are poorly understood requiring, however, the analysis of long-term data sets for improving estimations and finally being able to assess the impact of climate change on the availability of water resources. Therefore, this project tackles one of the most challenging problems with water availability in mountain regions: prediction of the variability and associated uncertainties of groundwater recharge and its implication for sustainable land use. The aim of this study is to quantify and predict groundwater recharge rates, their variability and uncertainties and the potential impacts for land use and water management in Austria. To address this aim this project will (1) make use of the existing long-term monitoring infrastructure with soil water monitoring data for up to 20 years at 14 locations in Austria, (2) develop and apply new calibration and validation procedures for estimation of soil hydraulic properties and groundwater recharge rates and associated uncertainties for the local scales, (3) upscale the local information by its implementation into regional hydrological and integrated bio-physical, economic model approaches and testing the improvement of implementation by analysing the model uncertainties, and (4) assess implications of climate and socio-economic drivers on water availability, land use and crop production. The outcomes are a set of scientifically based mathematical models on different scales for simulation of water fluxes and soil water balance, maps giving information on groundwater recharge rates including their uncertainties for current and future climate conditions, and integrated land-water management guidelines to provide policy advice on sustainable utilization and management of soil water resources in the context of global change. Based on these outcomes, we will identify areas with potential conflicts in water availability for agricultural production or areas with reduced groundwater recharge rates requiring a more sustainable management of groundwater resources and irrigation. Further, this project will identify regions with changes in the availability of water as a resource and provide solutions on water management for reducing potential conflicts over water use in future.
Publikationen
Project staff
Christine Stumpp
Univ.Prof. Dr. Christine Stumpp
christine.stumpp@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-81501, 81511
Project Leader
01.06.2019 - 30.06.2023
Gerhard Kammerer
Ass.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.nat.techn. Gerhard Kammerer
gerhard.kammerer@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-81515
Project Staff
01.06.2019 - 30.06.2023
Giuseppe Brunetti
Dr. Giuseppe Brunetti
giuseppe.brunetti@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-81514
Sub Projectleader
01.06.2019 - 30.06.2023
Marleen Ambrosia Schübl
Marleen Ambrosia Schübl MSc.
marleen.schuebl@boku.ac.at
Project Staff
01.06.2019 - 30.06.2023