Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Karlsruhe, Germany, have investigated how global warming affects groundwater temperatures and their study indicates that by 2100, more than 75 million people are likely to be living in regions where the groundwater temperature exceeds the highest threshold set for drinking water by any country.
The study, which was published in Nature Geoscience, indicates that by 2100, groundwater temperatures will rise by 6.3°F.
“There are already about 30 million people living in regions where the groundwater is warmer than stipulated in the strictest drinking water guidelines. That means it may not be safe to drink the water there without treatment,” said Susanne Benz, Ph.D., from the Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing at KIT, which prepared the study in cooperation with Kathrin Menberg, Ph.D., and Professor Philipp Blum from the Institute of Applied Geosciences at KIT.
“It may need to be boiled first, for example. The drinking water also gets warmed up in water pipes by heat in the ground. Depending on the scenario, as many as several hundred million people could be affected by 2100.”
The researchers projected the lowest warming rates in mountainous regions with deep water tables, such as the Andes and the Rocky Mountains.
“We can provide maps showing global groundwater temperatures at various depths beneath Earth’s surface,” Benz said. “The maps show that the world’s highest groundwater warming rates can be expected at locations with a shallow groundwater table and/or high atmospheric warming.”
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