Impacts of Climate on Renewable Groundwater Resources and/or Stream-Aquifer Interactions

Dear colleagues,

The evaluation of aquifer recharge is essential to the quantitative evaluation of renewable groundwater resources and stream–aquifer interactions that is required to implement proper water policies at different spatial and temporal scales. However, aquifer recharge is a broad concept that includes natural sources from precipitation, aquifer transference, losing rivers, and snow melting; non-premeditated human-induced sources from irrigation and urban returns and losing channels and dams; and premeditated human-routed sources from different artificial infiltration techniques. Weather–land attributes, human water requirements, and global climatic forces determine the magnitude of natural sources, the existence of additional human-induced sources when water is used, and the need for human-routed sources in contexts of water scarcity.

A temporal perspective on how climate influences aquifer recharge and, therefore, renewable groundwater resources and surfacewater–groundwater interactions in general is needed. Over the last millennium, climate has determined the renewability of current groundwater resources in many drylands of the Earth. Current global climatic forces, which include the increasing influence of droughts and floods in different terrestrial latitudes, condition future water resources management policies. Finally, global climate scenarios predict the thresholds for future global water availability.

In this broad ‘aquifer recharge–climate’ framework, studies concerning climate influences on all aquifer recharge types that occur over different aquifer, catchment, and landscape typologies at different spatial and temporal scales of observation are welcome. Studies concerning climate influences on human-induced recharge and/or surfacewater–groundwater interactions are welcome. The analysis of climatic patterns and trends, which are drivers of the change in natural aquifer recharge from precipitation, will also be welcome.

Dr. Francisco Javier Alcalá
Dr. David Pulido-Velázquez
Dr. Luis Ribeiro
Guest Editors

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