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dc.rights.licenseCC-BY-NC-ND
dc.contributor.advisorWanders, Niko
dc.contributor.advisorNijland, Wiebe
dc.contributor.authorKoekkoek, I.
dc.date.accessioned2019-08-26T17:00:53Z
dc.date.available2019-08-26T17:00:53Z
dc.date.issued2019
dc.identifier.urihttps://studenttheses.uu.nl/handle/20.500.12932/33618
dc.description.abstractThe summer of 2018 in the Netherlands was exceptional warm and sunny leading to a precipitation deficit that was three times higher than normal. Two out of four KNMI climate scenarios expect dryer summers in the Netherlands. A Natura 2000 area affected by the 2018 drought is Natura 2000 area Punthuizen-Stroothuizen. Desiccation, acidification and eutrophication impact the characteristic habitat types for Punthuizen-Stroothuizen. Recovery measures, assure future improvement of the groundwater level but climate change was not taken into account when assessing he potential effects of the measures. Research goal and methods The research objective is to gain insight into the impact of increasing summer precipitation deficits, predicted by KNMI'14 climate scenario Wh, on groundwater levels and achievability of vegetation objectives and to assess whether the taken measures are effective to keep the groundwater levels sufficiently high under a changing climate. A hydrological model is used for this research. Six scenarios are ran: baseline conditions (+Wh-scenario), short-term measures (+Wh-scenario) and long-term measures (+Wh-scenario). Climate change is incorporated by precipitation and evaporation data. Maps are used to visualize the impact of measures and climate change on groundwater levels. Point data is extracted from the model to study the impact of climate change and measures on fluxes. Point data is also used to research the impact of climate change on flora by calculating doelgaten, fluxes and period of inundation at the location of monitoring wells. WaterVision is used to zoom out and give information about the impact of climate change on vegetation types over the whole area. Results Both short- and long-term measures result in higher groundwater levels in both winter and summer. Effects are larger in winter and groundwater levels increase more due to the long-term measures than short-term measures. Climate change has only small effects (-5 to +5 cm) in winter throughout the area. Groundwater levels decrease with 5 to 20 cm in summer. The short-term measures are not sufficient in summer to cope with climate change effects. The long-term measures are more effective and lead to increasing summer and winter groundwater levels in Punthuizen. For Stroothuizen, more measures are needed to cope with climate change. Both climate change and measures bring increasing fluxes in winter and spring, which is beneficial. The current situation in Punthuizen-Stroothuizen is suboptimal for the desired diversity in flora, since groundwater levels are too low, periods of inundation too short and fluxes too low. Climate change results in lower GLGs and GVGs, shorter periods of inundation but somewhat higher fluxes. Climate change does put the achievability of the vegetation objectives more at risk. The proposed measures bring relieve, since they increase groundwater levels, fluxes and inundation times but more is needed. Discussion The functioning of the hydrological system is properly simulated by the model and therefore, the model can be used to draw theoretical conclusions on the effects of measures and climate change, regardless of the existence of residuals when forecasting groundwater levels. Uncertainty is present in the climate scenario due to interpolation factors and new insights into climate change. Also, only the effect of hydrological factors is taken into account when studying the impact of climate change on flora. Conclusion Measures and climate change (partly) neutralize each other. Conditions nowadays are suboptimal and more measures are needed to increase groundwater levels (especially in Stroothuizen) and obtain desired conditions for the flora.
dc.description.sponsorshipUtrecht University
dc.format.extent14739012
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.titleImpact of climate change on groundwater levels and flora of Natura 2000 area Punthuizen-Stroothuizen
dc.type.contentMaster Thesis
dc.rights.accessrightsOpen Access
dc.subject.keywordsclimate change, Punthuizen-Stroothuizen, groundwater levels, flora,
dc.subject.courseuuWater Science and Management


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