Exploring the Role of Land Use evolution in Groundwater Modeling for Sustainable Management: A Case Study of the Lille Metropolitan Area
Abstract
Groundwater represents a crucial source of drinking water in the Lille metropolitan area. Despite its importance, the resource is vulnerable to potential evolution of land use: recharge, runoff and evapotranspiration processes in a soil-sealing context and changes in cultural practices. As a result, stakeholders emphasized the importance of exploring the influence of land use on groundwater to ensure sustainable management of the resource and enhance territorial planning. The actual 3D hydrodynamic model useful for the management of groundwater resources (MARTHE code) has a significant limitation in that it does not consider the impact of land use evolution. We propose here to investigate the contribution of a hydrological distributed numerical approach that incorporates land cover data in the groundwater modeling compared to a global approach at the scale of a peri-urban territory. To do so, we use the HELP code by considering the temporal and spatial evolution of land use and their associated characteristics such as vegetation, soil properties to detail recharge and runoff over more than 20 years that we incorporate to the initial groundwater model.
The two approaches yielded comparable global water balance results. However, at the local scale, the model accounting for land use showed significantly different hydric components. Choosing the appropriate model depends on the specific research question and spatial scale, and considering land use evolution is crucial for accurate urban planning impact assessments, especially at the district level.
Keywords
BRGM French geological survey France Land use change groundwater sustainability recharge runoff groundwater flow modeling. Topic: Catchment scale integrated surface water and groundwater studies
BRGM
French geological survey
France Land use change
groundwater sustainability
recharge
runoff
groundwater flow modeling. Topic: Catchment scale integrated surface water and groundwater studies