Water supply impacts on forest’s groundwater levels with water-balance analysis: a case study at Szentai forest (Hungary)

Climate change can be characterized by a definite warming trend with its most significant impact on the water cycle through altering precipitation and evapotranspiration processes. The anticipated changes induce the higher water consumption of plants, thus a lower groundwater table may appear and the regeneration of groundwater-dependent forest communities are called into question. In Hungary, woodlands on the plains with high water requirements and wetlands are particularly affected.

Kaszó LIFE project is a respectable example of positive water supply interventions (for groundwater-dependent forest ecosystems). This project aimed the water supply’s improvement of the forests, small fens and grasslands at West Inner-Somogy micro-region, in the Szentai forest, utilizing log weirs and lake rehabilitation to restore the degraded habitats.

The goal of this study is the analysis of the hydrological impacts of water supply interventions on the groundwater level. In case of three different forest ecosystems water balance modeling was also carried out to analyze in a complex way the effects of the interventions.

The main conclusion of this work is that, however, the rehabilitation of lakes and the construction of new ones significantly affected the water levels in the surrounding groundwater wells, but the effects of the log weirs were undetectable.

Acknowledgement: This article was made in frame of the project TKP2021-NKTA-43 which has been implemented with the support provided by the Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary (successor: Ministry of Culture and Innovation of Hungary) from the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund, financed under the TKP2021-NKTA funding scheme.