TY  - JOUR
A1  - Zielhofer, Christoph
A1  - Schmidt, Johannes
A1  - Reiche, Niklas
A1  - Tautenhahn, Marie
A1  - Ballasus, Helen
A1  - Burkart, Michael
A1  - Linstädter, Anja
A1  - Dietze, Elisabeth
A1  - Kaiser, Knut
A1  - Mehler, Natascha
T1  - The lower Havel River Region (Brandenburg, Germany)
T2  - Water
N2  - Instrumental data show that the groundwater and lake levels in Northeast Germany have decreased over the past decades, and this process has accelerated over the past few years. In addition to global warming, the direct influence of humans on the local water balance is suspected to be the cause. Since the instrumental data usually go back only a few decades, little is known about the multidecadal to centennial-scale trend, which also takes long-term climate variation and the long-term influence by humans on the water balance into account. This study aims to quantitatively reconstruct the surface water areas in the Lower Havel Inner Delta and of adjacent Lake Gulpe in Brandenburg. The analysis includes the calculation of surface water areas from historical and modern maps from 1797 to 2020. The major finding is that surface water areas have decreased by approximately 30% since the pre-industrial period, with the decline being continuous. Our data show that the comprehensive measures in Lower Havel hydro-engineering correspond with groundwater lowering that started before recent global warming. Further, large-scale melioration measures with increasing water demands in the upstream wetlands beginning from the 1960s to the 1980s may have amplified the decline in downstream surface water areas.
KW  - long-term hydrological changes
KW  - historical maps
KW  - review of written
KW  - sources
KW  - preindustrial to industrial period
KW  - hydro-engineering history;
KW  - effects of global warming
KW  - drying trend
KW  - wetlands
KW  - drainage works to
KW  - create cropland
KW  - Lower Havel River Region
KW  - Brandenburg
KW  - Germany
Y1  - 2022
UR  - https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/64065
SN  - 2073-4441
VL  - 14
IS  - 3
PB  - MDPI
CY  - Basel
ER  -