WMO reports on 2023 water resources: Conditions either too dry or too wet

WMO reports on 2023 water resources: Conditions either too dry or too wet
by Robert Schreiber
Frankfurt, Germany (SPX) Oct 07, 2024

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has released its third State of Global Water Resources report, revealing that 2023 was marked by extreme weather patterns, with many regions experiencing either significant drought or excessive rainfall. The year 2023 is recorded as the driest year of the past 34 years, surpassing the droughts of 2021 and 2015, according to the findings.

"The year 2023 was indeed much drier than we had expected," said Professor Robert Reinecke of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), who contributed to the report. Reinecke leads the Earth System Modeling group at JGU's Institute of Geography, and his team played a pivotal role in assessing water discharge rates and water storage changes across global water bodies.

The report extends beyond previous editions by including data on the storage capacity of lakes and other reservoirs, as well as water in solid forms like snow and glaciers. The comprehensive analysis shows significant deviations from the long-term averages (1991-2020) in more than 50% of river catchment areas.

According to Reinecke, water discharge rates of major rivers such as the Mississippi and Amazon were notably lower than normal in 2023. He also highlighted the alarming loss of glacier volume globally: "The worldwide loss of glacier volume, equivalent to 600 gigatons of water, is the greatest loss we have witnessed in the past five decades."

While some regions, like South Africa, saw improvements in groundwater levels, others-particularly in North America and Europe-suffered declines due to extended droughts. Soil moisture levels also varied widely, with severe droughts in North and South America, while countries such as New Zealand and Russia experienced higher-than-normal moisture levels.

"The key takeaway from this year's report is that conditions across the globe were far from normal," Reinecke explained. "It was either too dry or too wet-and neither extreme is a good sign. As global temperatures rise, we have to expect more frequent instances of both."

The report also notes that 2023 was the hottest year on record, with global temperatures 1.45 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Reinecke collaborated with Dr. Hannes Muller Schmied of Goethe University Frankfurt and the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Center in preparing the report. Together, they contributed critical modeling data through the Global Runoff Database Center (GRDC) in Koblenz. Reinecke's Earth System Modeling group focused on methods for analyzing groundwater data, which is part of an ongoing effort to build a global dataset on groundwater impacted by climate change.

This research was a part of the collaborative effort of the Rhine-Main Universities (RMU) alliance, comprising Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Goethe University Frankfurt, and the Technical University of Darmstadt. The RMU alliance was created in 2015 to strengthen academic cooperation in research, teaching, and public outreach.