Impacts of Climatic Variability on Groundwater Resources of Massachusetts

Thursday, September 26, 2013: 2:05 p.m.
David F. Boutt, Ph.D. , Geosciences, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Amherst, MA

This presentation gives a detailed synthesis of instrumental records of groundwater level fluctuations in response to climate and land-use change in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Massachusetts is extremely fortunate to have a tremendous wealth of long-term monitoring sites (perhaps the greatest density of sites in the U.S.) that allow a robust spatial and temporal analysis of water level change due to droughts and floods. A statewide analysis of streamflow, climatic information (such as precipitation and air temperature), and groundwater level data yields important information concerning the coupling of surface water to groundwater. Groundwater tends to be disconnected from surface water during major droughts, implying that these systems can be temporally distinct even in a humid-temperate climate. Trend testing results using the seasonal Mann-Kendall test suggest that the majority of the state has higher water levels in the 2000s compared to reference levels in the 1960s. A significant amount of variability exists in the sensitivity of water level to yearly and decadal climate variability. From this data we develop maps of sensitivity of groundwater levels to differing climatic conditions and postulate on the impacts of increasing levels of precipitation on the hydrologic response of aquifers. This sensitivity is strongly influenced by subsurface heterogeneity and should be included in decision support tools used for coupled surface water/groundwater management Recommendations for future monitoring and water management scenarios are provided in the context of this spatially and temporally distributed water level analysis.

David F. Boutt, Ph.D., Geosciences, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Amherst, MA
David F. Boutt is an assistant professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts. His research focuses on coupled processes in hydrogeology, including the coupling of fluid flow and deformation in porous and fractured rocks and groundwater/surface water interactions. Boutt’s research program is currently supported by the US DOE, NSF, and the Massachusetts DEP. He received a B.S. and M.S. in geology from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. from New Mexico Tech in 2004.