According to a recent study published in Science Advances, the rate of depletion of groundwater in India during 2041-2080 will be thrice the current rate with global warming.
- As the country becomes warmer, people will draw more water from underground, leading to faster depletion.
- Across climate change scenarios, the researchers found that their estimate of groundwater level (GWL) declines from 2041 to 2080 is 3.26 times current depletion rates on average (from 1.62-4.45 times) depending on the climate model and Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenario.
Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs)
- To model and predict future climate it is necessary to make assumptions about the economic, social and physical changes to our environment that will influence climate change.
- Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) are a method for capturing those assumptions within a set of scenarios.
- The conditions of each scenario are used in the process of modelling possible future climate evolution.
