Especial highly cited paper: The catastrophic effects of groundwater intensive exploitation and Megadrought on aquifers in Central Chile: Global change impact projections in water resources based on groundwater balance modeling.

Science of The Total Environment, Volume 914, 1 March 2024 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.169651

Autor: 

1. J. Jódar: Centro Nacional Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas IGME-CSIC, España; j.jodar@igme.es; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8708-0303 View this author’s ORCID profile
2. J. Urrutia: Center for Research and Development of Water Ecosystems, Universidad Bernardo O'Higgins, Santiago, Chile; javier.urrutia@uantof.cl; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7598-5471 View this author’s ORCID profile
3. C. Herrera; Center for Research and Development of Water Ecosystems, Universidad Bernardo O'Higgins, Santiago, Chile; Universidad Católica del Norte, Antofagasta, Chile; christian.herrera@ubo.cl;  https://orcid.org/0009-0002-1800-0765
4. E. Custodio; Real Academia de Ciencias de España, España; Emeritus Professor Groundwater Hydrology Group, Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain; Instituto de Estudios Ambientales y Recursos Naturales (iUNAT), University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain; emilio.custodio@upc.edu
5. S. Martos-Rosillo; Centro Nacional Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas IGME-CSIC, España; s.martos@igme.es; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8493-7789
6. L.J. Lambán; Centro Nacional Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas IGME-CSIC, Spain; javier.lamban@igme.es; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8493-7789

Keywords: Groundwater depletion, Groundwater management, Groundwater governance, Sustainability, Anthropogenic drought. 

Abstract: Central Chile is undergoing its most severe drought since 2010, affecting ecosystems, water supply, agriculture, and industrial uses. The government's short-term measures, such as increasing groundwater extraction (by 383 % from 1997 to 2022), are exacerbating the situation, leading to long-term hydrological deterioration. The objective of this research is to establish the main processes driving the water table depth evolution within Central Chile over the period 1979–2023. This is done by conducting groundwater balances on five major hydrological basins of Central Chile. For the Megadrought (MD) period (2010−2022), the groundwater level depths reflect not only the recharge variability but, especially, the forcing trend of groundwater withdrawals: they represent 35 % and 65 %, respectively, of the total phreatic level drawdown. This result underlines the dominant role played by groundwater withdrawals in the current delicate state of Central Chile's groundwater resources, while revealing that drought is a new complex phenomenon to deal with, in the midterm, to revert the current water resource trend in Central Chile. Our study moreover presents the impact of climate change in the basin in the framework of six different groundwater withdrawal scenarios. In the worst case (i.e., RCP8.5), the aquifer recharge decreases 18 % with respect to 1979–1997, which is the period assumed to be unaffected by the impact of MD and withdrawals. Such a reduction may be irrelevant in the dynamics of the aquifer system if the current extraction rate does not change. The estimated recovery time needed to reach aquifer conditions equal to those of the unaffected period is approximately 50 years.

Idioma: inglés. 

Publicación: 28 de diciembre del 2023. 

Volumen: Science of The Total Environment, Volume 914, 1 March 2024.

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