GENESIS will review and develop new scientific knowledge on groundwater systems and incorporate this knowledge into:
Ground Water Directive (GWD)
new tools for better integrated groundwater management.
Specific objectives are:
description of relevant feedbacks between atmosphere, crop production and soil moisture conditions for assessment of climate change effects on regional groundwater
assessment of climate change effects on groundwater depent ecosystems benchmarking of Nitrate leaching models to address the ability of different tools to simulate the nitrate leaching in foreign circumstances
contribution to a number of EU-policy related documents with respect to groundwater and GWD-ecosystems
Future groundwater management should provide safe drinking water and safeguard important ecosystems. The groundwater status is affected by direct and indirect drivers. The most important being land-use activities and the climate change. These drivers cause changes in groundwater recharge and flow dynamics, leaching of pollutants and groundwater quality. Changes in water quantity and quality directly effect ecosystems relying on groundwater. Scientific research is needed to improve the understanding of how different drivers affect groundwater systems. Research is also needed to develop methods to safeguard the functions that groundwater provides to socio-economical uses (water supply, irrigation, industry) and ecosystems.
Results
Results foreseen are scenario analysis with respect to climate change related stress- and forcing functions to the Kromme Rijn pilot area:
European forecast with respect to atmospheric conditions reduced water supply possibilities in summer time due to the Rhine's low flow conditions and reduced water discharge capacity dureing high flow events during winter time change of cropping pattern to adapt to climate change
The analysis will focus on the impacts for crop production and on the impacts on groundwater dependent ecosystems. Other results are for example analysis and predictions of water quality patterns in shallow groundwater below Groundwater dependent ecosystems in the Kromme Rijn pilot area. |
