EXTREME GROUNDWATER LEVELS IN 2022 AND 2023

Abstract

2022 and 2023 were exceptional in terms of groundwater level height. While many parts of the country were ravaged by groundwater drought in 2022, groundwater levels rose and reached extremely high levels in 2023. The driest months of 2022 were August and September, when record low groundwater levels were measured in the aquifers of Vodice-Skaručna, the Kamniška Bistrica gravel deposit, Polhov Gradec-Tošč-Osojnik, the Lower Savinja River valley, and the Čatež plain. In most parts of the country, groundwater recovered and reached high water levels in the first half of 2023. Record-high groundwater levels were recorded in August 2023 after exceptional, large-scale river floods in parts of the aquifers of the Sora river valley and the Kranj plain, Vodice-Skaručna, the Lower Savinja River valley, and the Dolinsko, Ravensko and Apače plains. At two measuring locations, record low and record high grou­ndwater levels were measured in the period of two consecutive calendar years. The maximum amplitude of water level fluctuations in the considered period was highest in the Kranj plain aquifer, and locally exceeded 19 metres.