The presented dataset forms the basis for investigating present and future coupled effects of rising surface temperatures and temporal trends in groundwater recharge on subsurface pressure and temperature (PT) conditions in the North German Basin beneath the Federal States of Brandenburg and Berlin (NE Germany), for the period 1955-2100.
The study relies on a stochastic weather generator, a distributed hydrologic model, and a 3D thermo-hydraulic groundwater model to evaluate spatio-temporal subsurface feedback to two shared socioeconomic pathways (SSP) for seven general circulation models (GCM).
The results demonstrate a regional variability in both the intensity and maximum depths of projected groundwater warming, driven by hydraulic gradients and the underlying geological structure. The magnitude of groundwater warming primarily depends on the surface temperature scenario. Projected changes in recharge are not sufficient to reverse this trend, although recharge is still a key factor controlling groundwater dynamics within aquifers lying above the Rupelian Clay aquitard.
The dataset can be further utilized for assessing shallow geothermal potential and groundwater storage availability in the Berlin-Brandenburg region under climate change.
The dataset is the basis for describing a 60-year-long evolution of groundwater dynamics and thermal field in the North German Basin beneath the Federal State of Brandenburg (NE Germany), covering the period between 1953 and 2014 with monthly increments. It was produced by one-way coupling of a near-surface distributed hydrologic model to a 3D basin-scale thermohydraulic groundwater model with the goal of investigating feedbacks between climate-driven forcing (in terms of time- and space-varying recharge and temperature), basin-scale geology, and topographic gradients. Modeled pressure and temperature distributions are validated against published groundwater level and temperature time series from observation wells. Our results indicate the spatio-temporal extent of the groundwater system subjected to nonlinear interactions between local geological variability and climate conditions.
The dataset comprises of input files and scripts required to run the groundwater model in GOLEM and output files from the transient thermo-hydraulic simulations in EXODUS format. The input and output data is organized as separate archived folders (*.gz format).