Delving Deep into the Mountain Block for Future Water Security

Mountains serve as the water towers of the world, providing critical water supplies to billions of people. Mountains capture precipitation and channel it downstream, thereby regulating water availability and buffering lowland communities against water shortages. However, the timescales of mountain block recharge to lowland communities remain largely unknown due to observational challenges. This undermines our ability to develop robust impact assessments and adaptation pathways for vulnerable downstream communities. This project is addressing the knowledge gap by examining how groundwater in mountain blocks contributes to downstream water supplies. The field-based study leverages a rich hydrogeological dataset, including borehole networks, geophysical surveys, and records of groundwater dynamics. Insights gained at the field location will be applicable to other mountain regions across the world. Mountain block recharge is the flow of groundwater from mountainous areas to adjacent lowland aquifers. Recent research indicates that deep mountain block recharge (greater than 5 km) is a significant component of both the mountain and lowland water cycles, providing resilience to water shortages during drought. But, studies of mountain hydrology often ignore groundwater flow and assume that the crystalline basement rock is impermeable. This study will quantify the depth and fluxes of groundwater flow in mountain blocks. The collaborative international project will leverage established partnerships and develop new partnerships with universities and natural resource agencies, ensuring effective pathways for impact across research, industry, and policy sectors. The international team brings extensive experience working across research, societal, and policy domains. This award was made possible through the NSF/GEO-UKRI/NERC lead agency opportunity. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.