Tracing environmental forcing on groundwater recharge

日益增加的水资源人口压力，再加上气候压力，危及世界各地淡水资源的数量、质量和分布。地方当局需要具备在各种土地利用和气候条件下测量、模拟和预测地下水补给的能力，以实现可持续的资源管理。地下水现在是人类生活用水的重要来源，提供了世界上近一半的饮用水，魁北克省高达80%的农村人口，以及大约43%的灌溉用水。*基于加拿大东部和西欧的几个案例研究，说明了各种水文地质环境、气候条件和人为压力，目前的建议旨在开发工具和含水层尺度模型，以提高我们的能力：*-量化当前各种土地利用对地下水补给的影响*-预测地下水资源对土地利用和小流域气候变化的响应*-评估地下水补给质量和数量的变化对地表生态系统的影响*该计划将导致几个创新性的研究贡献：*1)开发长期监测和量化不同土地利用下的补给通量的新方法。该计划将有助于在监测地下温度和水同位素方面取得进展，并对大气信号进入地面的传播进行建模。这些原始工具允许在当地尺度上间接量化补给通量，对于研究和水管理目的都很有意义。*2)地下水资源对土地利用和气候变化的分水岭尺度模型。补给量是地下水资源管理中的一个重要参数，对补给量的可靠估计是地下水资源可持续管理的基础。将在分水岭尺度上评估不同土地用途的补给通量，并将成为政策制定者的支柱。*3)调查环境不稳定性，例如地下水的弥漫性或点源污染。与更传统的方法相比，创新的同位素工具的开发和地球化学模拟的改进将提供有关人为信号在地下水中传播的关键信息和早期预警。*这项研究计划致力于地下水循环的调查，并对污染物传播的准确建模和预测提出创新贡献。这些进展将回应日益增长的社会对水资源管理的需求。该计划将包括HQP培训：1个PDF，3个博士，3个硕士和5个理科。这些HQP将从与国内和国际研究机构的密切合作中受益匪浅。**

The increasing demographic pressure on water resources, complicated by climatic stress, endangers the quantity, quality and distribution of freshwater resources around the world. Ability to measure, model and predict groundwater recharge under various land uses and climate conditions, is required for sustainable resource management by local authorities. Groundwater is now a significant source of water for human consumption, supplying nearly half of all drinking water in the world, up to 80% of the rural population in the province of Quebec, and around 43% of water consumed by irrigation. ***Based on a few case-studies in eastern Canada and Western Europe illustrating a variety of hydrogeological settings, climatic conditions and anthropogenic stress, the current proposal aims to develop tools and aquifer-scale models in order to improve our capability of:***- Quantifying the present impacts of various land uses on groundwater recharge ***- Predicting the response of groundwater resources to land use and climate change in small river basins ***- Assessing the impact of changes in groundwater recharge quality and quantity on surface ecosystems******This program will lead to several innovative contributions to research: ***1) The development of new methods for long-term monitoring and quantification of recharge fluxes under different land uses. The program will contribute to advances in monitoring of temperature and water isotopes in the subsurface, associated with modeling of the propagation of atmospheric signals into the ground. These original tools, allowing indirect quantification of recharge fluxes at the local scale, are of great interest for both research and water management purposes.***2) A watershed-scale model of groundwater resource response to change in land use and climate. Recharge is a key parameter in groundwater resource management, and a reliable estimate of recharge is required for sustainable management. The recharge fluxes will be assessed for different land uses at the watershed scale, and will be a mainstay for policymakers.***3) The investigation of environmental instabilities, such as diffuse or point-source pollution in groundwater. Development of innovative isotopic tools and improvements in geochemical modeling will provide critical information on the propagation of the anthropogenic signal in groundwater and an early warning compared to more traditional approaches.***This research program is dedicated to the investigation of groundwater cycling, and proposes innovative contributions to accurate modeling and prediction of pollutant propagation. These advances will respond to growing societal needs in water resource management. The program will include HQP training: 1 PDF, 3 PhD, 3 MSc and 5 BSc. These HQP will benefit significantly from close collaborations with national and international research institutions.**