Global Assessment of Water Stress in Karst Regions in a changing world
About the project
Karst develops by the dissolution of carbonate rock. About 7–12% of the Earth’s continental area is covered by karst regions and approximately one quarter of the global population is completely or partially dependent on drinking water from karst aquifers. For the next decades, climate models predict a strong increase in temperature and a decrease of precipitation in many karst regions in the world. Despite these predictions, only few studies have quantified the impact of climate change on karst water resources, majorly due to the lack of observations and regionalisation tools.

Aims and objectives 
​The aim of the project is to improve the general understanding of karst processes to quantify present and future karst water stress at a global scale, hereby supporting decision making that can mitigate the consequences of water stress on socioeconomic systems. The project will apply novel monitoring, analysis and large-scale modelling schemes to advance in
  • understanding and including karstic heterogeneity in hydrological models,
  • upscaling catchment based observations and simulation approaches to the global scale, and
  • comparing present and future water resources availability with water demand across the globe.
The hereby developed approaches will bring significant scientific advances to understand and model karst systems and will provide means to stakeholders and decision makers to achieve sustainable development and protection of drinking water from karst regions worldwide.

Research project funded by the German Research Foundation