Evaluation of Groundwater Storage Depletion Using GRACE/GRACE Follow-On Data with Land Surface Models and Its Driving Factors in Haihe River Basin, China

Abstract

Groundwater storage (GWS) in the Haihe River Basin (HRB), which is one of the most densely populated and largest agricultural areas in China, is of great importance for the ecosystem environment and socio-economic development. In recent years, large-scale overexploitation of groundwater in HRB has made it one of the global hotspots of GWS depletion. In this study, monthly GWS variations in HRB from 2003 to 2020 were estimated using the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO) data in combination with three land surface models (LSMs) from the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS). The results show the following: (1) HRB suffered extensive GWS depletion from 2003 to 2020, which has been aggravated since 2014, with a mean rate of 1.88 cm·yr−1, which is equivalent to a volume of 6 billion m3·yr−1. The GWS depletion is more serious in the plain zone (−2.36 cm·yr−1) than in the mountainous zone (−1.63 cm·yr−1). (2) Climate changes are excluded from the reasons for GWS depletion due to annual precipitation and evaporation being close to normal throughout the period. In addition, GWS changes show a low correlation with meteorological factors. (3) The consumption of groundwater for irrigation and land use/cover changes have been confirmed to be the dominant factors for GWS depletion in HRB. (4) The effects of inter-basin water transfer projects cannot be obviously observed using the GRACE and GRACE-FO; more inter-basin water transfers are needed for recovering the GWS in HRB. Therefore, it is imperative to control groundwater exploitation and develop a more economical agricultural irrigation structure for the sustainability of groundwater resources in HRB.

Using GRACE to Detect Groundwater Variation in North China Plain after South–North Water Diversion

“…However, we note it is the trend of groundwater‐level in December instead of the annual average field like OBS1 or GRACE results. Similar behavior is reported in a recent study (Guo et al 2022), which also indicates a sharp increase in the deep groundwater funnel area from 2014 to 2020. Although the implementation of the SNWDP in 2014 facilitate the transformation of the previous water use mode into a conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater, the decreasing GWSA during the end of period II illustrates a greater water demand under a dry climate, which cannot be effectively addressed solely using the surface water (e.g., diverted water and precipitation).…”

“…A recent study argued that shallow unconfined groundwater remained stable during 2015 to 2017 and the deep confined groundwater decreased much faster than that before 2014 via the independent component analysis (ICA) and multisource data (Li et al 2021). Guo et al (2022) also confirmed this statement according to the groundwater‐level records from confined wells over the NCP. Similar behaviors are also detected based on continuous downscaled GRACE GWSA, resulting in the decreasing trend of −19.11 ± 8.75 and −19.72 ± 9.08 mm/a during the period 2015 to 2020.…”

Evaluating the Hydrological Components Contributions to Terrestrial Water Storage Changes in Inner Mongolia with Multiple Datasets

“…There were successful studies calculating the GWS change in arid regions based on GRACE\GFO data [ 55 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 ]. Like most studies, the GWS changes in Inner Mongolia were calculated.…”

A review of satellite-based monitoring of groundwater storage changes and depletion consequences

“…The most representative GWS change monitoring methods include groundwater level fluctuation method (WTF), hydrological model [5], groundwater flow model [6] and satellite gravity measurement [7]. However, the use of monitoring wells to measure groundwater levels requires a sufficient number of monitoring points and a reasonable distribution.…”