Researchers Find Current Climate Change Impact Models on Groundwater Incorrect
An international team of researchers has demonstrated that key processes in models used for the global assessment of water resources for climate change are currently missing. This could mean climate change impact models are wrong in some parts of the world and cannot yet be used to guide water management.
The study, published today [Tuesday 28 February] in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), has shown that groundwater recharge estimates for 560 million people in the karst regions in Europe, the Middle East and Northern Africa, are much higher than previously estimated from current large-scale models.
This finding, by researchers from the Universities of Bristol; Freiburg; Victoria, Canada; and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria, suggests that more work is needed to ensure sufficient realism in large-scale hydrologic models before they can be reliably used for local water management.
Rafael Medina