Rethinking Groundwater Supplies in Light of Climate Change: How Can Groundwater Be Sustainablly Managed While Preparing for Water Shortages, Increased Demand, and Resource Depletion?

Signals that a World Water Crisis is Developing Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has noted, in increasingly strong language, that water sources (rivers, lakes, and bores/groundwater) humans have relied upon for millennia may disappear or be radically different in future (Bates 2008; Gupta 2007; Lean 2007; Watson et al. 1997). predicted changes address where water is located, in what form water is stored (ice vs. liquid) and in what amount will water be available. natural conditions related to these changes include: $ shifts in precipitation patterns; some areas receiving more rain, others receiving less; $ shifts in storm frequency (fewer) and intensity (more intense) (Chang 2008); $ loss of ice stored as glaciers and as polar ice formations (Revkin 2008); $ loss of inland river flow due to reductions in winter storms, spring snow melt and runoff; and $ drop in groundwater levels due to reduced recharge (less rain over recharge areas) and increased pumpage from aquifers (Bates 2008; Rogers 2008). Although public and regulatory attention is slowly exerting pressure to make public water supply systems more efficient, meaning they waste less water, and more conservation minded, are these efforts missing bigger picture of overall freshwater availability, now and in future? According to Peter Rogers, P.E., of Harvard University (2008), the world's demand for freshwater is currently overtaking its ready supply in many places and this situation shows no sign of abating. Reminder of World Water Resources It is worth remembering how earth's water is distributed across planet. Of all water on earth, 97 per cent is held as saline water, primary in earth's oceans, and is unfit for use by most terrestrial plants and animals, including humans. Only 3 per cent of earth's water is freshwater and of this, 2 per cent is stored as ice in continental glaciers and polar ice caps. Thus, only 1 per cent of earth's total water is readily usable by humans. Most of 1 per cent is stored as groundwater. Surface water (streams, rivers and lakes) makes up only about 0.02 per cent of all water (USGS Water Basics). Climate Change Is Already Affecting Freshwater Resources Some of most important glaciers around world are in retreat. For example, glaciers in Himalayas, Tibet-Qinghai Plateau, Alaska and Canada, Greenland, South America and Switzerland are melting faster than most climate models predicted. Yao Tandong, one of China's leading glaciologist, believes that at currents rates, two thirds of Tibet-Qinghai Plateau glaciers could disappear by 2060 (Brown 2008 4). Greenland glaciers are melting so rapidly that they are triggering localized earthquakes as crust adjusts to loss of billions of tons of ice that is breaking off and sliding into sea. (Brown, P. 2007). According to Chris Rapley, leading expert for British Antarctic Survey, the ice is moving faster both in Greenland and Antarctica than glaciologist had believed would happen (Brown 2008 4). Recently, the Markham Ice Shelf, a sheet of ice that had been attached to Ellesmere Island in Canadian Arctic for 4,500 years, broke loose and disintegrated over a few days in August [2008], scientists reported, in September (New York Times 2008). loss of major continental ice formations is important for many reasons. One reason important to humans is that melting water drains a significant amount of fresh water to oceans. Excessive melting represents a disruption of normal snow and melt cycles that have historically provided water to some of world's major river and groundwater systems. The glaciers in Himalayas and on Tibet-Qinghai Plateau feed all major rivers of Asia, including Indus, Ganges, Mekong, Yangtze, and Yellow Rivers. …

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