A Hydrometeorological Study of Groundwater Level Changes during the COVID-19 Lockdown Year (Salento Peninsula, Italy)

The monitoring data of a micrometeorological station in Lecce (Southern Italy, Puglia region, Salento Peninsula) were used with the aim of interpreting the variations of the groundwater level in a shallow aquifer as a function of hydrometeorological forcing. For this scope, the Aridity Index (AI) was calculated to evaluate the surface-water stress. Although results indicate a moderate drought during 2019-2020 hydrological year, a critical situation for the surface hydrological balance in the first quarter of 2020 did not occur. Therefore, the reduction of groundwater level measured in April can be ascribed to the excessive domestic water consumption occurred during the lockdown for COVID-19.