The Impact of Climate Change on Groundwater by Studying Climate Parameters of the Soil and Atmosphere

Chapter One of The Impact of Climate Change on Groundwater by Studying Climate Parameters of the Soil and Atmosphere

 

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Water is indispensable for life, but its availability at a sustainable quality and quantity is threatened by many factors, of which climate plays a leading role (IPCC, 1995). Groundwater is the major source of drinking water in Africa and has a rapidly expanding role in irrigation to combat growing food insecurity. This module deals with both the impact of climate change on groundwater resources, It is important to recall the global extent of climate change, and to consider the impacts on the scale of the global hydrologic cycle.

Of Africa’s population of 1 billion, roughly 60% live in rural areas. Around 80% of them rely on groundwater-based community or household supplies for domestic and other water needs (WHO/UNICEF, 2008).

Currently there are more than 300 million people in Africa without access to safe drinking water, many of whom are amongst the poorest and most vulnerable in the world (MacDonald, A.; Bonsor, H.C.; Dochartaigh, B.E.O.; Taylor, R.,, 2012). Climate variability and change influences groundwater systems both directly through replenishment by recharge and indirectly through changes in groundwater use. These impacts can be modified by human activity such as land-use change (Taylor, Nature Climate change, 2013).

Climate change is “an altered state of the climate that can be identified by change in the mean and/or variability of its properties and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer”. It may be due to “natural internal processes or external forcing, or to persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use” (IPCC, 2007).

Climate change affects water resources around the world in generally unknown ways. Potential impacts of climate change on surface water particularly projected regional climate patterns and trends (i.e., climate variability and change) have been studied in some detail. Yet, little is known about how subsurface waters will respond to climate change coupled with human activities

We refer to all subsurface water as ‘‘groundwater’’, including soil water and unconfined and confined aquifer waters. Distinctions can be made between these components of groundwater, noting interactions between them and surface water.

The challenges of understanding climate-change impact on groundwater are unprecedented because climate change may affect hydrogeological processes and groundwater resources directly and indirectly (Allen, D. M., Mackie, D. C., Wei, M., 2004). In ways that have not been explored sufficiently

Observational data and climate predictions provide abundant evidence that freshwater resources (both surface and groundwater resources) are vulnerable and have the potential to be strongly affected by climate change, with wide-ranging consequences for society and ecosystems (Calow, R.; MacDonald, A, 2009).

Today, climate change may account for approximately 20% of projected increases in water scarcity globally (Bouraoui, F., Vachaud, G., Li, L. Z. X., Le Treut, H,, Chen, T., 1999).

Thus, there is a need to evaluate and understand climatic variability over the long term to better plan and manage groundwater resources well into the future, while taking into consideration the increasing stresses on those resources from population growth and industrial, agricultural, and ecological needs (Warner, S.D., 2007).

In this project we appraise the state of the science of global change related to all components of groundwater. Scientific issues and methods are placed in the context of global programs aimed at assessment of groundwater resources and adaptation to climate change. The current emphasis is on regional case studies with the potential for global analogues to inform decisions where detailed studies are not presently feasible. In this synthesis of results to date, we provide the type of soft information needed to generalize scientific knowledge and the controlling factors specific to each case study.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

In recent decades, a wide array of scientific research has been carried out to better understand how water resources might respond to global change. However, research has been focused dominantly on surface-water systems, due to their visibility, accessibility and more obvious recognition of surface waters being affected by global change. Only recently, water resources managers and politicians are recognizing the important role played by groundwater resources in meet the demands for drinking water, agricultural and industrial activities, and sustaining ecosystems, as well as in the adaptation to and mitigation of the impacts of climate change and coupled human activities.

These changes in global climate are expected to affect the hydrological cycle, altering surface-water levels and groundwater recharge to aquifers with various other associated impacts on natural ecosystems and human activities. Although the most noticeable impacts of climate change could be changes in surface water levels and quality there are potential effects on the quantity and quality of groundwater

This research I believe will ultimately save a lot of time especially when people do not have to spend money in carrying out agricultural practice or study purpose

AIM

The aim of the work is to determine the impact of climate change on groundwater by studying Climate parameters of the soil and atmosphere.

OBJECTIVES

a)   To generate an hourly record of soil moisture, humidity, dew point and temperature

b)     To get an insight into the possible differences in the groundwater level of the areas studied.

c)   To determine impacts of climate change on ground water level for the study area, and to assess the sensitivity of the results to different global climate models;

d)   Analyze weather          parameter data and build future predicted climate change datasets with temperature, humidity, soil moisture and dew point

e)   The time intervals between observations of these parameters (sometimes referred to as data interval) are normally constant. These analyses would enable us to know how these parameters fluctuated with the respect to time and how the fast Fourier transform corrects the irregularities from the frequency trends.

 

SIGNIFICANCE OF WORK

This project has the advantage that it is very useful in determining the variations in climate parameters, the suitability of such place for agricultural and study purpose and in determining groundwater level change in three different regions.

GEOLOGY OF STUDY AREA

The choice of study area for this work was picked at random. For the rural region, a town called Olomoro, Delta state, in Isoko South Local Government Area while for the urban location, a region called Afiesere, Delta state, in Ughelli North was picked. As for Urban-rural location, Ugbomro town, Delta state was picked.

ARRANGEMENT OF WRITE-UP

In chapter one, the introduction to the project is presented, the aim, objectives and methodology were also presented. Chapter two covers the literature review.

Chapter three presents the methodology and the process of data acquisition. Chapter four covers the result from the acquired data and the Fortran analyzed graphs of the three regions, while chapter five presents the conclusion and recommendation.