'NERC-NSTC': Groundwater Resources in a Changing Climate (GRCC) - A Taiwan & UK partnership to share and develop groundwater knowledge and expertise

Groundwater provides about of one-third of global freshwater supplies and it has been estimated that about 2.5 billion people are solely dependent on groundwater for basic daily water needs. It is critical for agricultural irrigation, industrial water supplies, and it sustains important groundwater-dependent terrestrial ecosystems. However, this high level of dependence on groundwater means that communities and ecosystems across the globe are vulnerable to natural changes in groundwater resources and the impacts of climate change. Consequently, groundwater droughts, periods of below-normal groundwater levels, and associated surface water droughts are a major threat to global water security and are potentially susceptible to being modified by climate change.

It has been shown that groundwater droughts are becoming more frequent, longer and more intense in the UK consistent with climate warming, and, that regardless of climate setting, nations and communities are increasingly aware of the impacts of climate change on the resilience of water resources. For example, Taiwan and the UK have both suffered recent major droughts. In 2021 Taiwan experienced its worst drought in over 50 years due to failure of the annual typhoon season leading to restrictions in public, industrial and agriculture water supplies. In response, the Taiwan Ministry of Water commissioned 190 new groundwater wells. In the UK, the driest 18 months for over 100 years, from 2010 to 2012, led to record low groundwater levels, 'hosepipe bans' were imposed on ~20 million people in spring 2012, and the environment and farming sectors were significantly adversely affected. In both cases the episodes of drought were driven by exceptional rainfall deficits consistent with the effects of climate change, either by the failure of the annual typhoons in Taiwan, or successive dry winters in the UK. As a result, there is a pressing need to better understand the formation and propagation of groundwater droughts and for improved short- and long-term forecasting and prediction of groundwater and linked surface water resources and droughts under climate change.

In response to the call from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (MOST) and Natural Environment Research Council, UK, the Groundwater Research in a Channing Climate (GRCC) Partnership is proposed. The GRCC is a new multi-disciplinary research partnership between the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Taiwan and the British Geological Survey (BGS) UK that will enable the sharing of knowledge and expertise and will build an enduring research capacity to addresses research challenges and societal needs related to groundwater droughts common to Taiwan and the UK. It will be facilitated by partnership-building activities and by joint working on three technical strands. To ensure that it endures, the GRCC Partnership will explicitly provide support for early careers researchers (ECRs) to grow into leadership roles and it will consolidate learning from all GRCC activities to produce a plan for future collaboration and growth of the partnership following the initial phase of GRCC funding.

The GRCC Partnership activities include: regular project team VCs; reciprocal, annual visits for joint workshops and to enable joint working on the three research themes; and, to enable access to and participation in regional (Taiwan and UK) research fora to widen the reach of the GRCC Partnership. The GRCC Partnership will work on and produce joint deliverables on three research strands: groundwater droughts; baseflow (streamflow) droughts; and, groundwater drought prediction and forecasting. The GRCC will enhance our ability to deliver impactful research on this important topic by significantly growing our current capability and future potential to provide world-leading, innovative research that can contribute to improved water resource and drought management planning in Taiwan, the UK, and more widely.