Changes to the Quantitative Status of Groundwater and the Water Supply

• Global change will change the quantity and quality of groundwater resources and subsequently the prerequisites for the supply of safe drinking water. Quite often, attempts are made to simply express the status of groundwater resources by stating changes in groundwater level or concentrations. However, such results require further interpretation by experts before they can be used in decision making. This chapter presents the approach chosen in GLOWA-Danube to translate the results of model simulations of groundwater head, groundwater recharge and river discharge into an index that expresses the status of groundwater resources in one single value. This index, called a “flag”, is used by the socioeconomic Actor models in DANUBIA as a basis for decision making. Here we describe the principle approach to generating flags from model results and how they are used in the decision process. Maps showing the results of flag calculations are shown for different climatic and societal scenarios.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Multidisciplinär geovetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Geosciences, Multidisciplinary (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Oceanografi, hydrologi och vattenresurser (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Oceanography, Hydrology and Water Resources (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Klimatforskning (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Climate Research (hsv//eng)

Keyword

GLOWA-Danube

DANUBIA

Groundwater

Water supply

Quantitative status

Qualitative status

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kap (subject category)