Impact of urbanization on groundwater recharge rates in Dübendorf, Switzerland

Abstract

Groundwater, as the world's most important reserve of available fresh water, is known to be affected by urbanization. Managing this resource in a sustainable way is critical for water resource management. Groundwater recharge rates in urban areas remain however still poorly understood and under-researched and knowledge about these rates and their expected changes under increasing urbanization is therefore of primary importance. This study aims to give insight into urban groundwater recharge by performing water budget calculations for four different time periods for an urban study site in northern Switzerland. In order to take into account uncertainty in parameter values a Monte Carlo (MC) approach was carried out. Our study highlights a strong positive correlation between groundwater recharge rates and the extent of the urban area. In detail, at the study site urban areas expanded from 6% in 1880 to 44% in 2009, leading to an increase in the mean groundwater recharge rate. However, the increase amount in recharge remains uncertain and varies between 29% and 67% depending on the parameter combination originating from the MC approach. Based on our water budget calculations, the transformation of natural landscapes into impervious areas leads to an increase in groundwater recharge rates due to the reduction of evapotranspiration that more than compensates for the increase in runoff. Furthermore, water main leakages contribute to an increase in recharge rates. Overall, we demonstrate that a better understanding of groundwater recharge changes in urban areas is required to move towards a sustainable water management. We hope that this example will encourage the hydrogeological community to pay more attention to urban groundwater recharge. Highlights • Urban groundwater recharge rate assessment through water budget calculations • Urbanization leads to a reduction of evapotranspiration • Water leakages contribute to recharge rates increase (up to 10% at the study site) • Increasing groundwater recharge rates due to urbanization at Dübendorf, Switzerland

Climate Change, Land Use/Land Cover Change, and Population Growth as Drivers of Groundwater Depletion in the Central Valleys, Oaxaca, Mexico

“…Nevertheless, ET sensitivity analysis indicate that increase in urban areas and decrease in forestland can promote R e (PRCC values of −0.1222 and 0.002 for urban and forestland), but these values are not significant. Similar values are found in Minnig, et al [45] and it can most likely explain the R e trend from 1986 to 2013, which increases by 72.29 mm/year.…”

“…In Oaxaca, this is evident by a resurgence of forests [43,44]. Similar results to Minnig et al [45] can be found, indicating that urban increases and forest decrease can decrease ET and increases the likelihood of R e , but these results are not significant with PRCC values of −0.122 and 0.002, respectively.…”

“…The effect of urbanization on water recharge is complex and the impact will depend on the features of the area, construction density, infrastructure to manage storm water, sewage systems, and water supply infrastructure [62]. However, the effect of urban growth can be mitigated by reducing evapotranspiration rates, and other, maybe new, matters may consequentially enhance recharge in some urban environments, such as leaks from sewage and water distribution systems and directing runoff into recharge infrastructure [45,63]. Unfortunately, urban growth is usually caused by population growth, which increases groundwater abstraction to meet the increasing water demand, and this can lead to increasing groundwater depletion.…”

WetSpass-Based Study of the Effects of Urbanization on the Water Balance Components at Regional and Quadrat Scales in Beijing, China

“…In addition, some studies in Beijing showed the effects of climate change and urbanization on groundwater recharge [55]. Studies indicated landscape pattern change, due to anthropogenic activities in the process of urbanization, played a major role to groundwater recharge [1,48].…”

Assessment of Groundwater Drought in the Mangyeong River Basin, Korea

“…However, unlike meteorological phenomena, which have a large discontinuity, groundwater acting as an intermediate medium to surface water is relatively slow in moving and is relatively less sensitive to changes in external factors [12]. Human activities and artificial construction can affect the groundwater system (e.g., recharge, flow paths, water quality [13][14][15]); however, if the anthropogenic influence is not significant, the groundwater level (GWL) displays a periodicity, such as daily, seasonal, or annual change [16][17][18][19], in addition, GWLs can also response to longer teleconnections and climate variability at multiannual, decadal, or longer time scales [20]. It experiences long-term trends of several hours to several months, depending on the depth and aquifer characteristics.…”