Groundwater Changes Following the Destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine

From April 15 to 16, 2026, the project team of the project “Under­ground risks: Ground Water Deple­tion after the Destruc­tion of the Kakhovka Dam as an Under­appreciated Legacy of the Ukraine-Russia War” met for a workshop at LIAG-Institute for Applied Geo­physics in Hanover. Further colleagues joined the meeting online from Kyiv and Frei­burg. The project is funded by the Leibniz Research Network Environ­mental Crisis – Crisis Environ­ments and grew out of the work­ing group “Societal Resilience in the Earth System” of the Leibniz Re­search Net­work Earth & Societies. The inter­disciplinary team of social scientists and geo­scientists from Germany and Ukraine discussed aspects of largely neg­lected ground­water changes as result from the reservoir destruc­tion, although effects are com­plex and in­clude bio­diversity, agri­culture and water security in the wider area of the Kakhovka reservoir region.