Ground water

Drinking water quality aspects

Due to climate change groundwater is warming. The temperature of Viennese groundwater has increased by .9 degrees Celsius between 2001 and 2010; by 1.4 degrees between 2011 and 2020. In a joint research project scientists at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the University of Vienna have tried to quantify the amount of drinking water loss to be expected due to ground water warming up to the end of the current century. Stressing the fact that regional shallow groundwater warming patterns vary substantially due to spatial variability in climate change and water table depth these researchers write that we currently lack knowledge about how groundwater responds to surface warming across spatial and temporal scales. Their study shows, however, that following a medium emissions pathway, in 2100 between 77 million and 188 million people are projected to live in areas where groundwater exceeds the highest threshold for drinking water temperatures (DWTs) set by any country.