The Rappbode Reservoir in the Harz region is Germany’s largest drinking water reservoir, supplying around one million people with drinking water in areas including the Halle region and the southern part of the state of Saxony-Anhalt. Water temperatures in the reservoir now have the potential to increase significantly due to climate change. If average global warming reaches between 4 and 6 degrees by the year 2100, as the current trend suggests, temperature conditions in the Rappbode Reservoir will become comparable to those in Lake Garda and other lakes south of the Alps.
The impacts of climate change can already be seen in the Rappbode Reservoir: Over the past 40 years, the water surface temperature in the reservoir has increased by around 4 degrees in the summer months. This trend could continue, as has now been demonstrated by a team of researchers led by Dr Karsten Rinke, who researches lakes at UFZ. Working on the basis of a lake model developed by US researchers, the team took into account potential reservoir management strategies to forecast the impacts climate change could have on water temperatures and on the lake’s physical structure, which control the stratification and seasonal mixing of the body of water.
The operators of the Rappbode Reservoir at the Talsperrenbetrieb Sachsen-Anhalt company are aware of this. They have been working closely together with Karsten Rinke and his team of researchers at UFZ for many years to assess the impacts of climate change and discussed about potential options for adapting the Rappbode Reservoir. The Talsperrenbetrieb is already planning new infrastructures that will make it possible to implement the new management strategies.
Source: Eurek Alert!
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