Influence of Climate and Land Use Change on the Groundwater System of the Veluwe, The Netherlands: A Historical and Future Perspective

Abstract

Changes in land use and climate have a large influence on groundwater recharge and levels. In The Netherlands, precipitation shifts from summer to winter are expected, combined with an increase in summer temperature leading to higher evaporation. These changes in climate could threaten the fresh water supply and increase the importance of large groundwater reservoirs. Sustainable management of these groundwater reservoirs, therefore, is crucial. Changes in land use could help mitigate the effects of climate change by decreasing the evaporation. In this study, we investigate the effect of changes in climate and land use on a large groundwater reservoir in The Netherlands, the Veluwe, for a historical period (1850–2016) and in the future (2036–2065). During the historical period, evaporation increased due to conversions from heather and drift sand to pine forest across the Veluwe. This change in land use had a larger effect on the groundwater recharge than change in climate over the historical period. In the future, an increase in winter precipitation will lead to higher groundwater levels in the elevated parts of the region. Surrounding areas are more vulnerable to an increase in dry periods in the summer. Groundwater reservoirs provide an opportunity to store water during wetter periods, which could alleviate drought impacts in surrounding regions during dry periods. Land use change, such as conversion from pine forest to other land use types, is a possible measure to increase water availability.

The effect of plant size and branch traits on rainfall interception of 10 temperate tree species

“…Globally, interception is estimated to be 19% of the gross precipitation for broadleaved and 22% for coniferous forests (Miralles et al, 2010). The intercepted part of the precipitation is not available for soil moisture and groundwater replenishment or run-off, which can lead to a decreased water resource availability and to a possible scarcity of water for, for example, drinking, agricultural or industrial purposes (e.g., van Huijgevoort et al, 2020). Water scarcity is of increasing relevance in the course of current and predicted climate change, where meteorological patterns are changing to wetter winters and drier and hotter summers in many temperate and boreal regions (IPCC, 2014).…”

Spatial correlation of groundwater level with natural factors using geographically weighted regression model in the Choushui River Alluvial Fan, Taiwan

“…Previous studies have classified these driving forces into natural and human factors. Natural factors include terrestrial, hydrology, and climate change, while human factors include land-use changes, river regulation, afforestation and deforestation, and groundwater extraction (Fu et al, 2019;Ojeda Olivares et al, 2019;Parizi et al, 2020;Van Huijgevoort et al, 2020;Ebrahimi et al, 2021;Maihemuti et al, 2021;Wu et al, 2021). Researchers have used various statistical regression models for understanding the drivers of changes in GWL analysis (Ainiwaer et al, 2019;Fu et al, 2019;Lin et al, 2020;Li et al, 2020;Mulyadi et al, 2020;Wu et al, 2021).…”

Potential Impact of Climate Change Analysis on the Management of Water Resources under Stressed Quantity and Quality Scenarios

“…With extreme events such as drought, floods, and heatwaves, the scientific community has gradually become aware of the importance of the effects of climate change on water resources and its impacts on the water cycle [9]. Climate change will affect the availability of freshwater resources in the future and will impact water supply [10] and the quality of this resource for human consumption [11]. As such, studies are increasingly employing climate modeling to ascertain its influence on natural water resources, the water cycle, and their mid-and long-term regional management [12][13][14].…”