Groundwater Storage Change in the Jinsha River Basin from GRACE, Hydrologic Models, and In Situ Data

Abstract

Groundwater plays a major role in the hydrological processes driven by climate change and human activities, particularly in upper mountainous basins. The Jinsha River Basin (JRB) is the uppermost region of the Yangtze River and the largest hydropower production region in China. With the construction of artificial cascade reservoirs increasing in this region, the annual and seasonal flows are changing and affecting the water cycles. Here, we first infer the groundwater storage changes (GWSC), accounting for sediment transport in JRB, by combining the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment mission, hydrologic models and in situ data. The results indicate: (1) the average estimation of the GWSC trend, accounting for sediment transport in JRB, is 0.76 ± 0.10 cm/year during the period 2003 to 2015, and the contribution of sediment transport accounts for 15%; (2) precipitation (P), evapotranspiration (ET), soil moisture change, GWSC, and land water storage changes (LWSC) show clear seasonal cycles; the interannual trends of LWSC and GWSC increase, but P, runoff (R), surface water storage change and SMC decrease, and ET remains basically unchanged; (3) the main contributor to the increase in LWSC in JRB is GWSC, and the increased GWSC may be dominated by human activities, such as cascade damming and climate variations (such as snow and glacier melt due to increased temperatures). This study can provide valuable information regarding JRB in China for understanding GWSC patterns and exploring their implications for regional water management.

Solid Water Melt Dominates the Increase of Total Groundwater Storage in the Tibetan Plateau

“…Soil moisture in‐situ observation networks were constructed to validate satellite retrievals and improve the modeling of soil moisture (Dente et al., 2012; Su et al., 2011; Yang et al., 2013). Previous studies found an increasing GWS in the subregions of the TP from the early 2000s (Bibi et al., 2019; Chao et al., 2019; Jiao et al., 2015; Xiang et al., 2016; Zhang et al., 2017) and attributed the GWS changes to various factors including precipitation, evapotranspiration, glacier retreat, permafrost degradation, snow melt, ecological project, etc. However, the dominant factors controlling the long‐term changes in GWS remain unclear and its response to climate change is not well understood, thereby calling for improved estimations of the water storage components and a holistic analysis of GWS changes as well as their driving factors.…”

Characterization of the Recharge-Storage-Runoff Process of the Yangtze River Source Region under Climate Change

“…So far, the groundwater change has been investigated via removing other components from TWS using LSM models [35,36,[65][66][67][68][69] or integrated with geographic information system [70]. This is because of the lack of the groundwater measurements.…”

“…Though using different models, Bibi et al [71] also revealed a sharp increase of groundwater in Qiadam Basin in the second half of 2006. Besides the rising temperature, water seepage and other natural causes, Chao et al [36] suggests that the groundwater change in this region is also influenced by human activities, such as dam construction. Overall, the origin of TWSA anomaly in 2006 can be arisen in two aspects.…”

Monthly Dynamic Groundwater Estimation using GRACE over Indonesia

“…There are many methods used for modeling and detecting groundwater, one of which is gravity anomaly [10]. Currently, the anomaly gravity approach from satellite data has not been applied for modeling groundwater and drought potential in Indonesia.…”