Climate change, land degradation, and biodiversity loss increasingly threaten aquifer recharge and groundwater quality. Ecosystem restoration offers multiple pathways to address these challenges by improving soil structure, reducing erosion and pollutant loads, and enhancing infiltration and groundwater replenishment. Restoration measures such as soil amendments, erosion control, river and floodplain rehabilitation, and wetland restoration can improve groundwater safety and resilience to climate extremes, including floods and droughts.
This session invites contributions on the hydrological and water quality impacts of restoration interventions, with emphasis on:
(i) groundwater recharge enhancement under current and future climates,
(ii) effects on chemical and microbiological groundwater quality and safety, including nutrients, trace contaminants, and pathogens,
(iii) biodiversity recovery, carbon sequestration, and other ecosystem co-benefits, and
(iv) monitoring and modelling approaches for assessing long-term sustainability and scalability.
We welcome field, laboratory, modelling, and socio-hydrological studies that bridge hydrology with soil science, ecology, water quality, and environmental health, and that explore the role of ecosystems and restoration interventions in supporting sustainable groundwater management under climate change.