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Cases of unintended anthropogenic groundwater heating. This overview provides examples of anthropogenic structures heating groundwater. Note that the comparability of these examples is limited due to different local conditions, measurement techniques, and distances to the heat source. a Willscher et al. (2010). b Felix et al. (2009). c Tissen et al. (2019). d Yes¸illerYes¸iller & Hanson (2003). e Dernbach (1982). f Yes¸illerYes¸iller et al. (2005). g Wiemer (1982). h Tidden & Scharrer (2017). i This study. j Menberg, Bayer, et al. (2013). k Westaway et al. (2015). l Bucci et al. (2017). m Becker & Epting (2021). n Zhu (2013). o Epting, Scheidler, et al. (2017). p Krcmar et al. (2020). q Henning (2016). r Ford & Tellam (1994).
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Anthropogenic warming of the atmosphere is one if not the most pressing challenge we face in the 21st century. While our state of knowledge on human drivers of atmospheric warming is advancing rapidly, little so can be said if we turn our view toward the Earth’s interior. Intensifying land use and atmospheric climate change condition the changing t...
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... practice, observation wells are typically scarce and heat sources are rarely found as separate isolated structures, and thus interpretation of anomalous temperatures and their sources is often not straightforward. Examples of altered groundwater temperatures by different heat sources are given in Figure 2. Despite varying local conditions, measurement techniques and distances to the heat source, many of the polygonal and linear structures are in a comparable range of low subsurface temperature (12-30 C). ...
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... reinjection of industrial cooling water directly into aquifers or cooling lakes can generate an additional heat input . Elevated groundwater temperatures caused by heat release from industrial buildings have been observed in particular in Europe (see Figure 2) ( Bucci et al., 2017;Westaway et al., 2015). ...
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... car parks (UCP) have the same characteristics as basements, but they are typically larger and buried deeper in the subsurface. Therefore, the local thermal anomaly in the subsurface is generally higher as reported for several cities (Figure 2). Studies regarding UCPs have been dedicated to the role of the groundwater flow regime ) and the integration in urban underground management ( Sartirana et al., 2020). ...
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... it comes to heat losses of swimming pools, leakage has to be considered as well (Chapuis, 2010). Only few studies have observed elevated subsurface temperature in connection to swimming pools (Figure 2). ...
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... hot spots can be caused by leakage and have been proven to be detectible by airborne thermography ( Zhou et al., 2018). The effect of district heating networks on subsurface temperature can be considerable (Figure 2), and can for instance, result in snow melt at the ground surface (Arola & Korkka-Niemi, 2014). In Vienna, Tissen et al. (2019) (Hepbasli, 2012). ...
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... depending on the waste age, while the rate of temperature increase is higher for newly deposited waste. Typically, a temperature of 30-60 C is reached within landfills (Figure 2) (Coccia et al., 2013;Yes¸illerYes¸iller & Hanson, 2003), even though 90 C or higher can occur (Grillo, 2014). The lateral extent of the thermal anomaly of landfills can be substantial. ...
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... The same observation has been made for the subsurface. Due to a number of different heat sources, such as basements, tunnels, and surface sealing (Attard et al., 2016;Noethen et al., 2022;Tissen et al., 2021), groundwater temperatures beneath cities are permanently elevated, which is typically referred to as subsurface urban heat island (Ferguson and Woodbury, 2004;Hemmerle et al., 2022;Menberg et al., 2013a;among others). In general, temperatures scale with building density and in urban centers, increased groundwater temperatures of up to 7 K can be observed (Böttcher and Zosseder, 2022;Menberg et al., 2013a). ...
... This ignores that UCPs, in comparison to regular basements, extend over several levels and, although typically not insulated, are passively heated by traffic (Becker and Epting, 2021). For these reasons, UCPs can be more effective heat sources than basements (Noethen et al., 2022). Becker and Epting (2021) directly addressed UCPs as heat sources and found that public UCPs have higher temperatures than private ones due to higher traffic volumes. ...
Built-up areas are known to heavily impact the thermal regime of the shallow subsurface. In many cities, the answer to densification is to increase the height and depth of buildings, which leads to a steady growth in the number of underground car parks. These underground car parks are heated by waste heat from car engines and are typically several degrees warmer than the surrounding subsurface, which makes them a heat source for ambient subsurface and groundwater. Thus, the objective of this study is to investigate the thermal impact of 31 underground car parks in six cities and to upscale the thermal impact that underground car parks have on the subsurface in Berlin, Germany. Underground car parks have daily, weekly, and seasonal temperature patterns that respond to air circulation and traffic frequency, resulting in net heat fluxes of 0.3 to 15.5 W/m2 at the measured sites. For the studied underground car parks in Berlin, the emitted annual thermal energy is about 0.65 PJ. Recycling this waste heat with geothermal heat pumps would provide a sustainable alternative for green energy and counteract the urban heat island by cooling of the shallow subsurface.
... The same observation has been made for the subsurface. Due to a number of different heat sources, such as basements, tunnels, and surface sealing (Attard et al., 2016;Noethen et al., 2022;Tissen et al., 2021), groundwater temperatures beneath cities are permanently elevated, which is typically referred to as subsurface urban heat island (Ferguson and Woodbury, 2004;Hemmerle et al., 2022;Menberg et al., 2013a;among others). In general, temperatures scale with building density and in urban centers, increased groundwater temperatures of up to 7 K can be observed (Böttcher and Zosseder, 2022;Menberg et al., 2013a). ...
... This ignores that UCPs, in comparison to regular basements, extend over several levels and, although typically not insulated, are passively heated by traffic (Becker and Epting, 2021). For these reasons, UCPs can be more effective heat sources than basements (Noethen et al., 2022). Becker and Epting (2021) directly addressed UCPs as heat sources and found that public UCPs have higher temperatures than private ones due to higher traffic volumes. ...
... To put a brake on urban sprawl, a vertical urban development has occurred, determining an augmented use of urban underground [8][9][10][11][12]. However, the construction of ever-deeper structures [13] can impact groundwater (GW) with regards to flow, quality, and thermal issues [5,14,15]. ...
... Managing GW/UIs interaction in urban areas is a challenging issue. Different problems can arise regarding GW quality, quantity, and thermal issues [5,6,15], but stability, erosion, and infiltration for UIs are some further topics to consider. With regard to GW infiltration into UIs, the scientific literature deals both with water inrush calculation during the construction of tunnels [26,27] and problems regarding already-operating underground tunnels [31,33]; in this study, a local scale numerical model was developed for the Transparency has been adopted to represent the volumes submerged by the water table; as visible in (c,e,g) this occurs only for subway line M4, and not for public car parks. ...
... Managing GW/UIs interaction in urban areas is a challenging issue. Different problems can arise regarding GW quality, quantity, and thermal issues [5,6,15], but stability, erosion, and infiltration for UIs are some further topics to consider. With regard to GW infiltration into UIs, the scientific literature deals both with water inrush calculation during the construction of tunnels [26,27] and problems regarding already-operating underground tunnels [31,33]; in this study, a local scale numerical model was developed for the western sector of Milan city, applying a methodology to quantify GW infiltrations into completed and operative UIs. ...
Urbanization is a worldwide process that recently has culminated in wider use of the subsurface, determining a significant interaction between groundwater and underground infrastructures. This can result in infiltrations, corrosion, and stability issues for the subsurface elements. Numerical models are the most applied tools to manage these situations. Using MODFLOW-USG and combining the use of Wall (HFB) and DRN packages, this study aimed at simulating underground infrastructures (i.e., subway lines and public car parks) and quantifying their infiltrations. This issue has been deeply investigated to evaluate water inrush during tunnel construction, but problems also occur with regard to the operation of tunnels. The methodology has involved developing a steady-state groundwater flow model, calibrated against a maximum groundwater condition, for the western portion of Milan city (Northern Italy, Lombardy Region). Overall findings pointed out that the most impacted areas are sections of subway tunnels already identified as submerged. This spatial coherence with historical information could act both as validation of the model and a step forward, as infiltrations resulting from an interaction with the water table were quantified. The methodology allowed for the improvement of the urban conceptual model and could support the stakeholders in adopting proper measures to manage the interactions between groundwater and the underground infrastructures.
Vertical water flow is a decisive factor for slope stability and instability, but its characterization in the field remains a challenge. Quantifying flow rates in slopes is commonly impeded by insufficient resolution during field investigations or the limited insight obtained from near-surface geophysical methods. This study aims to develop a convenient method to investigate vertical water flow in slopes on the sub-meter scale. We present a numerical method to estimate flow rates based on temperature-depth profiles. In order to account for typical small-scale variabilities and complex boundary conditions in slopes, these profiles are obtained by high-resolution temperature measurements with passive distributed temperature sensing (passive-DTS). The transient heat tracing data is inverted in space and time to derive trends of perturbing vertical flow. The method is successfully validated in a laboratory tank with a series of experiments under well-controlled hydraulic and temperature boundary conditions. It is demonstrated that upward and downward flow rates greater than 1.0 × 10 −6 m·s −1 can be properly estimated, and the influence of moving water on the thermal profiles can be identified even to a flow rate of 1.0 × 10 −7 m·s −1 .
