Water supply concept Lower Saxony 1: 500 000 — Change in usage pressure for the reference date 2030 (at IST state) in medium-term conditions for rural districts

The Lower Saxony water supply concept serves the overarching objective of ensuring the long-term supply of water in Lower Saxony, in particular public water supply as a key component of public services of general interest. Water supply needs to be further developed in line with current and regional challenges and with a view to sustainable groundwater management. To this end, it is necessary for policymakers and water authorities as well as for the users of the resource to be able to identify needs at an early stage in order to take measures to ensure the long-term supply of water in Lower Saxony in a timely manner. The Lower Saxony water supply concept provides a nationwide information framework necessary for this purpose. As a technical concept, it serves water users, licensing authorities and the land for water management and the public as a transparent and forward-looking basis for information and planning. Requirements for individual procedures are expressly not the objective. As part of the water supply concept, the current status (reference year 2015) and the medium- and long-term developments of Lower Saxony’s water supply are accounted for. Here, the groundwater requirement for medium and dry conditions and the water needs of the relevant groundwater users are compared at different times (2015, 2030, 2050 and 2100). The methodology of the Lower Saxony water supply concept was carried out in a grid-based manner. For this purpose, a 500 x 500 m grid was created, which extends over the whole of Lower Saxony and Bremen. National data bases for planning the current and future management of groundwater have been transferred to the grid. These formed the basis of the calculations, evaluations and final presentations carried out. The map shows the change in the usage pressure compared to the IST state at middle ratios for rural districts at the time of 2030.