The Impact of Climate Change on Groundwater Temperature of the Piedmont Po Plain (NW Italy)

Abstract

This paper represents the first regional-scale investigation in the Piedmont Po plain about the relationship between groundwater temperature (GWT) and climate variability. The understanding of relationships between air temperature (AT) and GWT is really important, especially in the context of global climate change. The aim of this investigation is to study the relationship between GWT and AT over a 10-year time period (from 2010 to 2019) to analyse how these two parameters interrelate and to evaluate possible trends. To carry out this study, basic statistic interpolations were performed on both parameters to facilitate comparison. Both AT and GWT showed an increase over the observed decade with a more pronounced growth of the AT; this allow to state that GWT is more resilient to climate change than AT. However, some areas in the Piedmont plain showed a behaviour that partially deviated from the standard trend observe for the majority of the region. These areas were influenced by particular anthropic factors (for example the paddy fields in the Novara plain) or natural elements (as the monitoring wells in the “Canavese” area, located downstream of melting glaciers, or the wells located close to the Tanaro River). Moreover, this study wanted to stress the importance of the knowledge of the localization in wells of the instruments for the GWT measurement, to have the most accurate and comparable data. It was proved that as the depth increased, the maximum and minimum peaks of the GWT shifted in time respect to the maximum and minimum peaks of the AT, and, in addition, the GWT fluctuation in the bottom part of the aquifer was milder than the fluctuation observed in the most superficial part. Further investigations will be conducted in future in Piedmont plain areas with different behavior, in order to better understand their dynamics and the factors that may influence GWT and how they are affected by climate change.

How groundwater temperature is affected by climate change: A systematic review

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“…Other authors, such as Egidio et al [ 17 ] in Italy and Menberg et al [ 77 ] in Germany, focused on the comparison of GWT and AT variations, both observing a more marked increase in AT, and concluding that aquifers, especially shallow aquifers, are affected by CC and are therefore vulnerable. However, GWT is more resilient than AT to CC.…”

“…Refs. [ 17 , 18 ]). Other effects of groundwater temperature (GWT) variations are also evident, particularly about GW-dependent ecosystems, which have been studied by various authors (e.g.…”

Shallow groundwater temperature patterns revealed through a regional monitoring well network

“…Tissen et al, 2019), Italy (e.g. Egidio et al, 2022), Switzerland (e.g. Epting et al, 2017Epting et al, , 2021, United Kingdom (Bloomfield et al, 2013) and Austria (Benz et al, 2018).…”

Groundwater Chemical Trends Analyses in the Piedmont Po Plain (NW Italy): Comparison with Groundwater Level Variations (2000–2020)

“…Droughts tend to amplify extreme nitrate concentrations, as widely observed in European rivers and groundwater [13,14], and generally, increase ion concentrations with progressive deterioration of water quality [15,16]. Additionally, the increase in groundwater temperatures in the Piedmont Plain [17,18] could influence groundwater chemistry [19]. Therefore, the different responses of aquifers to climate change result in different resilience capacities [20].…”