The mission of the GEWEX Groundwater Network (GGN) is to bring together scientists from the hydrogeologic and groundwater flow modeling communities with the land surface and Earth system modeling communities to constructively link hydrogeology and groundwater modeling to Earth system models in GEWEX.
Background and Motivation
Groundwater is a central component of the global water cycle and key for socioeconomic well-being. Groundwater forms a hydrologic continuum with the land surface and atmosphere via processes related to infiltration, groundwater flow, evapotranspiration and baseflow. This continuum and its links to the energy and water cycle are widespread, keeping the continents in a delicate hydrologic balance by closing the water cycle from the continent to the ocean. Global change, including climate change, groundwater abstraction and land use change, is altering this balance from the local to the global scale.
Because of the importance of groundwater, realistic hydrogeological conceptualisation and best practice in groundwater flow modeling should help improve Earth system models. This means tackling major challenges, such as sparse or absent groundwater observations and water use information, merging satellite information (e.g. GRACE), hydrogeology and structural uncertainty, and computation.
Mission
The GEWEX GroundWater Network’s (GGN) mission is to constructively link hydrogeology and groundwater modeling to ESM in the Hydroclimate Panel (GHP) of GEWEX and beyond. The GGN will bring together scientists from the hydrogeologic and groundwater flow modeling communities with the land surface and Earth system modeling communities to formulate a concrete, multi-year science and research agenda. The GGN will focus on bringing the hydrogeologic perspective to the above challenges. We encourage hydrogeologists to actively participate in the GGN by contributing their expertise and actively shaping the groundwater modeling agenda in ESM and GEWEX.
Core Activities
The core activities as part of GGN’s mission are to
- build a strong community and establish a constructive, consistent voice for hydrogeology and groundwater modeling in Earth system models and GEWEX framework
- connect the GGN with the global Earth system modeling community in GEWEX
- dispatch hydrogeologists and groundwater modelex into GEWEX and WCRP working groups and panels for dialogue
- identify benefits and opportunities for injecting hydrogeology and groundwater modeling into Earth system modeling and GEWEX
- define a scientific agenda of hydrogeology and groundwater modeling in Earth system modeling and GHP, GEWEX
- training in hydrogeologic and groundwater flow best pratices
Contact, Leads
Stefan Kollet, Research Center Juelich (Germany), s.kollet@fz-juelich.de
Laura Condon University of Arizona (USA), lecondon@arizona.edu
Steering Group
George Houben, Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources(Germany)
Seifu Kebede Gurmessa, University of Kwazulu-Natal (South Africa)
Christian Langevin, US Geological Survey (USA)
Alan MacDonald, British Geological Survey (United Kingdom)
Chunmiao Zheng, Southern University of Science and Technology (China)
Additional background information can be found in our article in the GEWEX Quarterly, Vol 33, No. 1 | Quarter 1 2023, pg. 5–6
Groundwater Modeling in GEWEX: Closing the Terrestrial Water Cycle from the Regional to the Global Scale
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