Quantifying temporal variations in water resources of a vulnerable middle eastern transboundary aquifer system

Fallatah, O.; Ahmed, Mohamed; Save, Himanshu; Akanda, A. S.

doi:10.1002/hyp.11285

Cited by 41 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…The observed GRACE-derived TWS depletion over the study area is related to variations in both soil moisture storage and GWS, since GRACE has no vertical resolution [48]. To quantify the GRACE-derived GWS variations over the Saq aquifer system, the GLDAS-derived soil moisture estimates are subtracted from the GRACE-derived TWS averaged from the UT-CSR mascons as shown in Eq.…”

Section: Gws From Gracementioning

confidence: 99%

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Groundwater Quality Patterns and Spatiotemporal Change in Depletion in the Regions of the Arabian Shield and Arabian Shelf

Fallatah

2019

Arab J Sci Eng

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Groundwater quality is a critical issue in arid and semiarid countries, where it is one of the most reliable sources of water on which people depend. Water quality is a vital concern in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as it affects the health of its people, the growth of its agriculture, and its economic development. In this study, the objectives were to: (1) investigate the depletion rate of groundwater storage (GWS) in the study area by using Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data from April 2002 to April 2016 to quantify terrestrial water storage; (2) determine the ionic composition of cations and anions for 24 samples (12 samples from Arabian Shield and 12 from Arabian Shelf in Saudi Arabia); and (3) assess the water quality of the aquifer. The results show a GRACE-derived GWS depletion of − 2 ± 0.13 km 3 /year. Ionic compositions reveal two main groups: group I, with well depths of 144-607 m, and group II, with well depths of 12-150 m. Group I waters (all from the Saq aquifer) appear to be fossil waters, while group II waters (alluvial aquifer) appear to be mixed waters. As illustrated by the use of a Piper diagram, 85% of the samples in Arabian Shelf are characterized as a mixed water of calcium, magnesium, chloride, and sulfate (SO 4). In the Arabian Shield, 50% of the samples are characterized as Ca-Cl waters. Since most of the samples (98%) are from domestic wells used for drinking water and have the potential for radioactivity in the groundwater, it is essential to complete radioactive analysis and confirm acceptable water quality, based on the standards of the Water Health Organization and the Saudi Arabian Standards Organization. Keywords Groundwater quality • Groundwater depletion • Arabian Shield • Arabian Shelf • GRACE • Hydrochemical • Cations • Anions istry of Water and Environment, Tabuk Branch, for their help with analyzing the water quality of the samples that were used in this project.

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Section: Gws From Gracementioning

confidence: 99%

“…(1). Figure 2 shows the temporal variations in the GRACE-derived groundwater estimates over the Saq aquifer, revealing an average groundwater depletion rate of − 2.11 ± 0.13 km 3 /yr for the region (e.g., [48]). Water-level data from Saq aquifer has been used to directly validate the GWS from GRACE depletion over Fig.…”

Section: Gws From Gracementioning

confidence: 99%

Groundwater Quality Patterns and Spatiotemporal Change in Depletion in the Regions of the Arabian Shield and Arabian Shelf

Fallatah

2019

Arab J Sci Eng

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“…Some of these shortcomings are being partially addressed by the recent releases of the University of Texas -Center for Space Research (UT-CSR) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) GRACE Mass Concentration (mascon) solutions that are of higher spatial resolution, higher signal-to-noise ratio, and reduced leakage error compared to the CSR-and JPL-derived spherical harmonics solutions [10,11]. The absence of vertical resolution of TWS GRACE is being addressed by subtracting outputs of the Land Surface Models (LSMs) from the TWS GRACE data [12][13][14][15][16][17][18] and/or assimilation of TWS GRACE data into LSM [19][20][21]. The relatively large latency of TWS GRACE data is being addressed by generating daily TWS solutions [22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forecasting GRACE Data over the African Watersheds Using Artificial Neural Networks

et al. 2019

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The GRACE-derived terrestrial water storage (TWS GRACE ) provides measurements of the mass exchange and transport between continents, oceans, and ice sheets. In this study, a statistical approach was used to forecast TWS GRACE data using 10 major African watersheds as test sites. The forecasted TWS GRACE was then used to predict drought events in the examined African watersheds. Using a nonlinear autoregressive with exogenous input (NARX) model, relationships were derived between TWS GRACE data and the controlling and/or related variables (rainfall, temperature, evapotranspiration, and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index). The performance of the model was found to be "very good" (Nash-Sutcliffe (NSE) > 0.75; scaled root mean square error (R*) < 0.5) for 60% of the investigated watersheds, "good" (NSE > 0.65; R* < 0.6) for 10%, and "satisfactory" (NSE > 0.50; R* < 0.7) for the remaining 30% of the watersheds. During the forecasted period, no drought events were predicted over the Niger basin, the termination of the latest (March-October 2015) drought event was observed over the Zambezi basin, and the onset of a drought event (January-March 2016) over the Lake Chad basin was correctly predicted. Adopted methodologies generate continuous and uninterrupted TWS GRACE records, provide predictive tools to address environmental and hydrological problems, and help bridge the current gap between GRACE missions.

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“…The CSR-M solutions can be used directly for any hydrologic application 39,40,53 . The CSR data were extensively utilized in assessing hydrologic extremes 54 , decadal groundwater changes 55,56 , and water scarcity 57 , among other hydrological applications 57,58 . The CSR-M data are available at http://www2.csr.utexas.edu/grace/RL05_mascons.html.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

+50 Years of Terrestrial Hydroclimatic Variability in Africa’s Transboundary Waters

Hasan¹,

Tarhule²,

Zume³

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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GRACE Terrestrial Water Storage (TWS) provides unique and unprecedented perspectives about freshwater availability and change globally. However, GRACE-TWS records are relatively short for long-term hydroclimatic variability studies, dating back to April 2002. In this paper, we made use of Noah Land Surface Model (LSM), and El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) data in an autoregressive model with exogenous variables (ARX) to reconstruct a 66-year record of TWS for nine major transboundary river basins (TRBs) in Africa. Model performance was evaluated using standard indicators, including the Nash Sutcliffe Efficiency criteria, cumulative density frequency, standardized residuals plots, and model uncertainty bounds. Temporally, the reconstruction results were evaluated for trend, cycles, and mode of variability against ancillary data from the WaterGAP Model (WGHM-TWS) and GPCC-based precipitation anomalies. The temporal pattern reveals good agreement between the reconstructed TWS, WGHM-TWS, and GPCC, (p-value < 0.0001). The reconstructed TWS suggests a significant declining trend across the northern and central TRBs since 1951, while the southern basins show an insignificant trend. The mode of variability analysis indicates short storage periodicity of four to sixteen-month in the northern basins, while strong intra-annual variability in the central and southern basins. The long-term TWS records provide additional support to Africa’s water resources research on hydroclimatic variability and change in shared transboundary water basins.

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Quantifying temporal variations in water resources of a vulnerable middle eastern transboundary aquifer system

Cited by 41 publications

References 60 publications

Groundwater Quality Patterns and Spatiotemporal Change in Depletion in the Regions of the Arabian Shield and Arabian Shelf

Groundwater Quality Patterns and Spatiotemporal Change in Depletion in the Regions of the Arabian Shield and Arabian Shelf

Forecasting GRACE Data over the African Watersheds Using Artificial Neural Networks

+50 Years of Terrestrial Hydroclimatic Variability in Africa’s Transboundary Waters

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