Transboundary fresh and thermal groundwater flows in the west part of the Pannonian Basin

György Tóth, Nina Rman, Rotár-Szalkai Ágnes, Tamás Kerékgyártó, Teodóra Szőcs, Andrej Lapanje, Radovan Černák, Anton Remsík, Gerhard Schubert and Annamária Nádor

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2016, vol. 57, issue C, 439-454

Abstract: In the paper, a new transboundary Upper Pannonian thermal groundwater body was identified which extends over 22,128km2 in Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia. The presented joint numerical simulation of freshwater and geothermal aquifers in the Pannonian sedimentary basin and weathered basement rocks provided new insights into the regional water balance and cross-border groundwater flow rates. It is highlighted that predominant thermal water flow directions in the pre-exploitation state were from Hungary to Austria, and from Slovenia and Slovakia to Hungary. The study, intended to simulate changes in regional flow patterns, revealed that the current production rates of thermal water dramatically decreased the cross-border flows in all cases, and even reversed the flow direction to be now from Hungary to Slovakia. Simulated drawdowns at the state borders are in the range of 2–10m, and they penetrate far into the neighboring countries. The expected future production, if increased for a factor of 3.5, should maintain the regional drawdown below 30m; however, flow reversals would occur. Although the current regional exploitation cannot be called unsustainable, the quantity status of some geothermal aquifers is deteriorating locally and demands fast management actions. The joint transboundary management should focus on regular exchange of information, on increasing energy efficiency, and on obligatory use of geothermal doublets for geothermal heat production.

Keywords: Cross-border flow; Geothermal aquifer; Thermal water; Aquifer depletion; Water management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032115014045
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:rensus:v:57:y:2016:i:c:p:439-454

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600126/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2015.12.021

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is currently edited by L. Kazmerski

More articles in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().