Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Zeydalinejad, Nejat
• Nassery, Hamid Reza

Titel

A review on the climate-induced depletion of Iran’s aquifers

Ist Teil von

• Stochastic environmental research and risk assessment, 2023-02, Vol.37 (2), p.467-490

Ort / Verlag

Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Quelle

Springer Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Few studies have examined the impact of climate change on groundwater resources worldwide, especially in developing countries. The objective of this study is to review the effects of climate change on groundwater resources in Iran in order to assess the present conditions and challenges and future directions. To this end, the related studies, especially the peer-reviewed national and international articles, were surveyed. Only the responses of 40 aquifers have been estimated toward climate change in Iran, such that a large gap occurs in this perspective. This is in reference to the alluvial aquifers, and even fewer studies have evaluated the impact of climate change on hard-rock and karst groundwater systems despite their being highly vulnerable to the existing stresses. The conducted studies are primarily small-scale, and inadequate research has been conducted on the effect of climate change on aquifers at national and even regional scales. The impact of climate change on groundwater quality and coastal aquifers has not hitherto been adequately assessed. An ever-increasing temperature and ever-decreasing precipitation over the country have been forecasted, resulting in induced stresses on aquifers, including the decline of groundwater level, storage and recharge. If the current managerial approaches are maintained, the failure threshold of most aquifers will certainly be exceeded, making the looming crisis of water in Iran even worse. Finally, it is recommended to reevaluate the groundwater management policies across the country thoroughly and, thence, propose and execute the new adaptation strategies.