Groundwater and environmental change

Photomontage of planet earth held in a droplet of water on a leaf ©iStockphoto.com/Florea Marius Catalin

We are researching the impacts of environmental change, including climate change, on groundwater in the UK and internationally.

Research includes reconstruction of historic groundwater levels, modelling future climate change impacts on groundwater resources and quality, and assessing resilience of groundwater in Africa to environmental change.

BGS staff recently contributed to the Water Climate Change Impacts Report Card produced by the Living With Environmental Change (LWEC) Partnership. This looks at the effect of climate change on fresh water in the UK - including rainfall, surface water and groundwater (quality and levels).

Impact of climate change on groundwater levels

The Future Flows and Groundwater Levels project has carried out the first consistent assessment of the impact of climate change on river flows and groundwater levels across England, Wales and Scotland, using the latest projections from the UK Climate Impact Programme.

Reconstructing historic groundwater levels

To understand the impacts of climate change on groundwater requires long-term data. BGS staff have been developing techniques to reconstruct historic (hindcast) groundwater levels to enable the impact of climate change over the last 100 years to be investigated.

Climate impact of diffuse pollution

BGS have undertaken research into the impacts of climate change on diffuse pollution (nitrate and pesticides).

Land cover and the impacts of climate change on groundwater

Land cover and how it could change, may have a significant effect on the degree and nature of the impacts of climate change on groundwater resources. BGS staff are modelling these linkages using a state-of-the-art groundwater model of the Chalk aquifer of the Berkshire Downs.

Impact of climate change on groundwater in Africa

BGS staff are part of a DFID-funded initiative to look at groundwater resilience to climate change in Africa. We are also developing a map of groundwater recharge for Africa as the first stage in a continental-scale assessment of the impact of climate change on groundwater resources.