Analysis of the spatial distribution of surface and groundwater abstractions in the territory of Slovakia in the last decade

Abstract

In recent years, we have been observing the increasingly frequent impacts of climate change, we are observing a growing number of occurrences of extreme weather events also in Slovakia. Long periods of warm weather without precipitation causing drought are followed by local high-intensity storms that cause extreme flood events. In connection with the solution to the problem of drought monitoring and the setting of drought warnings, documents are analyzed and prepared, which include the water resource balance of Slovakia (one of the basic background materials for water management planning). The water resource balance is based on an assessment of the relationships between water demands and water resources in the past year and assesses when and where water demands are not sufficiently covered. The results of the analysis also include a map image of surface and groundwater abstractions in the territory of Slovakia. The analysis is processed for total and individual abstractions of surface and groundwater, as well as their shares in individual categories of abstractions (waterworks, agriculture, industry, etc.). We present surface and groundwater abstraction averages for the period of the last decade 2013-2022. According to the analysis, over 70% of surface and groundwater abstractions are utilized for public water supply systems, while approximately 20% of these abstractions are used for industrial purposes. 45% of surface water abstractions are used for industrial purposes and 85% of groundwater abstractions are utilized for public water supply systems. In the last year (2022), we can observe an increase of 1.7% in total abstractions compared to the last decade (2013-2022). In the case of surface water abstractions for the year 2022 compared to the period 2013-2022 we can observe a decrease of 3.4% (water supply - an increase of 6.8%, industry – a decrease of 9.2%, agriculture – an increase of 40.7%). In the case of groundwater abstractions for the year 2022 compared to the period 2013-2022 we can observe an increase of 5.4% (water supply - an increase of 8.2%, industry - an increase of 2.4%, agriculture - a decrease of 17.4%).