Abstract
Since the nineteen fifties, groundwater levels in the Netherlands dropped more than as simulated by hydrological models. In the rural sandy part of the Netherlands, the difference amounts to approximately 0.3 m on average. The answer to the question of what or who caused this ‘background decline’ of groundwater tables may have juridical and financial consequences, especially since Dutch farmers are entitled to financial compensation for crop damage caused by groundwater abstractions. In our forensic study, we investigated how anthropogenic changes in groundwater recharge from 1950 to 2010 affected groundwater levels. In this period, crop yields in agriculture have risen sharply, and, because crop water use is proportionate to crop production, this led to more crop evapotranspiration and subsequently less groundwater recharge. Urban expansion and forestation has also led to a decrease in groundwater recharge. We showed that these changes in recharge may have caused a decline of groundwater of 0.2–0.3 m over 60 years (1950–2010). The simulated drawdown caused by groundwater abstractions appeared to depend on the amount of groundwater recharge related to land use and crop yield. This means that to properly evaluate the effects of a particular groundwater abstraction, one should account for the hydrological history of the landscape since the start of that abstraction.
Highlights
Water scarcity is becoming an increasing problem worldwide, especially in arid regions
In the category ‘urban’ of R = 226 mm·y. This number, which applies to both 1950 and 2010, is about the same as the potential precipitation surplus of P − Eref = 230 mm·y−1. This means that compared to arable land the urban recharge is relatively low because in summer, the actual evapotranspiration of arable land is often reduced due to drought and crop damage: Urbanization in the Netherlands in general leads to reduction of the recharge
Our results suggest that changes in land-use and crop yield reduced the recharge of groundwater, which in turn caused a decline of groundwater levels since the 1950s in the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant
Summary
Water scarcity is becoming an increasing problem worldwide, especially in arid regions. It may seem odd that in the Netherlands, water scarcity caused a conflict, since this country (35,000 km , Figure 1) is situated in the delta of the rivers Rhine and Meuse and because it has a humid climate. Groundwater levels in most of the country are shallow (less than 1–2 m below soil surface), so that in the growing season (summer), capillary flow from the groundwater table to the rooting zone is an important source of water supply to plants [3].
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