Groundwater Supply and Climate Change Management by Means of Global Atmospheric Datasets. Preliminary Results

Climate change influences hydrological cycle with a direct effect on groundwater resources, one of the most important supply sources for human consumption and irrigation. In a scenario where General Circulation Models do not represent yet a usual tool for water industry managers, potentially the use of global atmospheric datasets is of great interest for evaluating groundwater resources. In this paper data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) are compared to local water table measurements. With particular regard to unconfined aquifers, the good correlation between the trend of soil moisture and local water table data is pointed out. Such a promising result authorizes further insights in order to refine reliable tools for evaluating available groundwater resources in a climate change scenario.