Assessing climate change impact on root-zone water balance and groundwater levels

The present study employs regional climate model projections for assessing the impact of root-zone water balance and groundwater levels using crop and groundwater models. The projections from Hadley Regional Model 3 (HRM3) for A1B scenario showed an increase in temperature and rainfall (RF) of 1.8 °C and 328 mm, respectively, during mid-century (MC) (2021–2050) for Indian central Punjab. The respective increase in values for the end of century (2071–2098) would be 4.4 °C and 486 mm, compared with present time slice (PTS) (2000–2010). In future, irrigation requirement would reduce, because of increased RF and decreased transpiration from cropped area owing to a shortening of crop duration of rice-wheat cropping system with temperature. The reduced irrigation need in future would decrease groundwater withdrawal resulting in the rise of groundwater level.