Despite the global attention to climate change, the direct and indirect effects of climate change on groundwater resources remain underexplored. In the coming decades, a constellation of factors—from agricultural and industrial activities to the growing variability of weather patterns—may have severe consequences for the availability of groundwater. In February, 22 counterparts from across Europe and Central Asia, supported by IAEA experts, gathered at the Agency’s Vienna headquarters to explore the current status of isotope hydrology in the region and future ambitions for its use, and to develop plans on how to work together to assess groundwater resources using nuclear and isotopic techniques.
Groundwater is the planet’s largest distributed store of freshwater. The strategic importance of groundwater, for both global water and food security, is expected to grow as climatic variability increases. “In order to develop adequate mitigation and adaptation strategies, national authorities and decision makers need to understand how climate change can affect water resources and water related infrastructures,” said Oliver Kracht, IAEA isotope hydrologist.
The direct impacts of climate change on groundwater systems are mainly linked to observed and projected increases in temperature and average global sea levels, as well as to growing variability in precipitation. But climate change affects us indirectly, as well, through changing land-use patterns and through the intensified use of groundwater for human activities, which increases demand for this resource.