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Article Dans Une Revue Science of the Total Environment Année : 2024

The alarming state of Central Chile's groundwater resources: A paradigmatic case of a lasting overexploitation

Résumé

Ensuring water supply under climate change scenarios is a global concern, and groundwater resources play a crucial role. Aquifer depletion is a worldwide trend, and Chile is no exception. Through a statistical approach with strong hydrogeological criteria, the groundwater overexploitation phenomenon is studied in Central Chile, the most populated region in this mountainous country. With this purpose, we assess the evolution of groundwater levels and pumping between 1970 and 2020 by analysing 26,065 groundwater rights and 222 observation wells. Withdrawals increased from 498 hm3 in 1970 to 8883 hm3 in 2020. We recognised two general trends in groundwater levels: a quasi-steady state hydrodynamic regime pre-1988 and sustained decline post-1988, exacerbated since 2010 with the start of the Megadrought. Although groundwater recharge is expected to decrease during this severe drought, the declining trend strongly correlates with pumping but not with precipitation changes. Climate forcing is usually invoked to warrant the dramatic depletion of groundwater resources, but we demonstrated that all analysed aquifers have been overexploited since much earlier than 2010. Finally, the Chilean aquifers' overexploitation is a clear example of the consequences of prioritising the water offer over the water demand regulation, which hinders the United Nations' sustainable development goals accomplishment. Highlights: - The overexploitation phenomenon is studied in a mountainous country. - Recharge decrease is not the main driving factor explaining groundwater deepening. - Groundwater declining trends strongly correlate with pumping but not drought. - Megadrought (since 2010) came to exacerbate the existing declining trends. - A paradigm case of quasi-unrestricted groundwater withdrawals with social consequences.
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Dates et versions

hal-04243683 , version 1 (16-10-2023)

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Matías Taucare, Benoît Viguier, Ronny Figueroa, Linda Daniele. The alarming state of Central Chile's groundwater resources: A paradigmatic case of a lasting overexploitation. Science of the Total Environment, 2024, 906, pp.167723. ⟨10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.167723⟩. ⟨hal-04243683⟩
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