Publication Date:
2019-09-09
Description:
Under variable and changing climates groundwater storage sustains vital ecosystems and enables freshwater withdrawals globally for agriculture, drinking-water, and industry. Here, we assess recent changes in groundwater storage (ΔGWS) from 2002 to 2016 in 37 of the world's large aquifer systems using an ensemble of datasets from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and Land Surface Models (LSMs). Ensemble GRACE-derived ΔGWS is well reconciled to in-situ observations (r = 0.62–0.86, p value 0.5, p value 90th percentile, 1901–2016) precipitation and is inconsistent with prevailing narratives of global-scale groundwater depletion. Substantial uncertainty remains in estimates of GRACE-derived ΔGWS, evident from 20 realisations presented here, but these data provide a regional context to changes in groundwater storage observed more locally through piezometry.
Electronic ISSN:
2190-4995
Topics:
Geosciences