The Impact of Climate Change in Water Resources: An Example of Hard Rocks Aquifers in Mantoudi Area (Central Euboea Island, Hellas)

Abstract

AbstractThere is a general consensus that climate change is an ongoing phenomenon. This will inevitably bring about numerous environmental problems, including alterations to the hydrological cycle, which is already heavily influenced by anthropogenic activity. The available climate scenarios indicate areas where rainfall may increase or diminish, but the final outcome with respect to man and environment will, generally, be detrimental. Groundwater resources and their long-term renewal are controlled by long-term climate conditions. Climate change will, therefore, have a great impact on groundwater resources. The main object of this research is to analyze the current situation and compare it with future projections in order to estimate the influence of climate change in the hard rocks aquifer of Mantoudi area (Central Euboea Island), from the quality point of view (i.e. electrical conductivity). Furthermore, the research is focused on those geoenvironmental parameters such as fracture density and degree of fracture interconnection that play the most important role to groundwater renewal. The conclusions of this analysis are based on future projections under SRES A1Β scenario, using Regional Climate Models (RCMs) from the ENSEMBLES project, for the periods 2021–2050 and 2071–2100, compared to the reference period 1961–1990.KeywordsClimate ChangeRegional Climate ModelClimate Change ImpactFuture PeriodHard Rock AquiferThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.