Recent changes in terrestrial water storage in the Upper Nile Basin: an evaluation of commonly used gridded GRACE products

Shamsudduha, Mohammad; Taylor, Richard G.; Jones, Darren; Longuevergne, Laurent; Owor, Michael; Tindimugaya, Callist

doi:10.5194/hess-21-4533-2017

Cited by 51 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…Since March 2002, the GRACE satellites have provided independent monthly models of the Earth's gravity field at a spatial resolution of approximately 200,000 km 2 [24]. Consistent seasonal variations in the data have been shown to relate to terrestrial water mass variations at the Earth's surface [24,25]; data have been widely used at a river basin [26] and continent scale to estimate groundwater storage variations [27][28][29][30][31][32], ice sheet and glacier mass loss [33][34][35], drought events [36,37]; as well as a validation for hydrological models [38][39][40].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal and Decadal Groundwater Changes in African Sedimentary Aquifers Estimated Using GRACE Products and LSMs

et al. 2018

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Increased groundwater abstraction is important to the economic development of Africa and to achieving many of the Sustainable Development Goals. However, there is little information on long-term or seasonal groundwater trends due to a lack of in situ monitoring. Here, we used GRACE data from three products (the Centre for Space Research land solution (CSR), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Global Mascon solution (JPL-MSCN), and the Centre National D'etudes Spatiales / Groupe de Recherches de Géodésie Spatiale solution (GRGS)), to examine terrestrial water storage (TWS) changes in 12 African sedimentary aquifers, to examine relationships between TWS and rainfall , and estimate groundwater storage (GWS) changes using four Land Surface Models (LSMs) (Community Land Model (CLM2.0), the Variable Infiltration Capacity model (VIC), the Mosaic model (MOSAIC) and the Noah model (NOAH)). We find that there are no substantial continuous long-term decreasing trends in groundwater storage from 2002 to 2016 in any of the African basins, however, consistent rising groundwater trends amounting to~1 km 3 /year and 1.5 km 3 /year are identified in the Iullemmeden and Senegal basins, respectively, and longer term variations in ∆TWS in several basins associated with rainfall patterns. Discrete seasonal ∆TWS responses of ±1-5 cm/year are indicated by GRACE for each of the basins, with the exception of the Congo, North Kalahari, and Senegal basins, which display larger seasonal ∆TWS equivalent to approx. ±11-20 cm/year. The different seasonal responses in ∆TWS provide useful information about groundwater, including the identification of 5 to 9 month accumulation periods of rainfall in many semi-arid and arid basins as well as differences in ∆TWS responses between Sahelian and southern African aquifers to similar rainfall, likely reflecting differences in landcover. Seasonal ∆GWS estimated by combining GRACE ∆TWS with LSM outputs compare inconsistently to available in situ measurements of groundwater recharge from different basins, highlighting the need to further develop the representation of the recharge process in LSMs and the need for more in situ observations from piezometry.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal and Decadal Groundwater Changes in African Sedimentary Aquifers Estimated Using GRACE Products and LSMs

et al. 2018

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“…and global scales in comparison to in situ measurements (Cao et al, 2019;Zhang et al, 2015). With GRACE data, previous literature mostly focus on the TWS changes at the basin or regional scale (Creutzfeldt et al, 2015;Long et al, 2013;Ndehedehe et al, 2017;Ni et al, 2018;Rodell et al, 2009;Shamsudduha et al, 2017;Syed et al, 2008;Yang et al, 2017;Yi et al, 2016;Zhang et al, 2015). GRACE data also contributes to the exploration of hydrological storage changes, e.g., glacial mass loss (Brun et al, 2017;Huss et al, 2018;Jacob et al, 2012), lake level and extent changes (Zhang et al, 2017;Zhang et al, 2013) and groundwater depletion (Feng et al, 2018;Long et al, 2016;Rodell et al, 2009;Wada et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Widespread Decline in Terrestrial Water Storage and Its Link to Teleconnections across Asia and Eastern Europe

Liu¹,

Feng²,

Ciais³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Abstract. Recent global changes in terrestrial water storage (TWS) and associated freshwater availability raise major concerns over the sustainability of global water resources. However, our knowledge regarding the long-term trend in TWS and its components is still not well documented. In this work, we characterize the spatiotemporal variations in TWS and its components over the Asian and Eastern European regions during the period of April 2002 to June 2017 using multiple sources of data, including Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite observations, land surface model simulations and precipitation observations. The connections of TWS and global major teleconnections (TCs) are also discussed. The results indicate a widespread decline in TWS during 2002–2017, and five hotspots of TWS negative trends were identified with trends between −8.94 mm yr−1 and −21.79 mm yr−1. TWS partitioning suggests that these negative trends are primarily attributed to the intensive overextraction of groundwater and warm-induced surface water loss, but the contributions of each hydrological component vary among hotspots. The results also indicate that the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, Arctic Oscillation and North Atlantic Oscillation are the three largest, dominant factors controlling the variations in TWS through the covariability effect on climate variables. However, seasonal results suggest a divergent response of hydrological components to TCs among seasons and hotspots. Our findings provide insights into changes in TWS and its components over the Asian and Eastern European regions, where there is a growing demand for food grains and water supplies.

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“…The lack of in situ observations of lake precipitation, evaporation and inflow made it often almost impossible to close the water balance independently from observed lake levels. More recent studies use satellite-derived precipitation estimates over the lake and its basin (Awange et al, 2007a;Swenson and Wahr, 2009;Hassan and Jin, 2014;Shamsudduha et al, 2017). However, major 5 uncertainties in the quantification of the evaporation and inflow term still remain.…”

Section: Uncertainty and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling the water balance of Lake Victoria (East Africa) – Part 1: Observational analysis

Vanderkelen¹,

Lipzig²,

Thiery³

2018

Preprint

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Abstract. Lake Victoria is the largest lake in Africa and one of the two major sources of the Nile River. The water level of Lake Victoria is determined by its water balance, consisting of precipitation on the lake, evaporation from the lake, inflow from tributary rivers and lake outflow, controlled by two hydropower dams. Due to scarcity of in-situ observations, previous estimates of individual water balance terms are characterised by substantial uncertainties, which makes that the water balance is often not closed independently. Here we present a water balance model for Lake Victoria, using state-of-the-art remote sensing Precipitation is the main cause of seasonal and inter-annual lake level fluctuations, and on average causes the lake level to rise from May to July and to fall from August to December. Finally, our results indicate that the 2004-2005 drop in lake level can be attributed about half to a drought in the Lake Victoria Basin and about half to an enhanced outflow, highlighting the sensitivity 10 of the lake level to human operations at the outflow dam.

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Recent changes in terrestrial water storage in the Upper Nile Basin: an evaluation of commonly used gridded GRACE products

Cited by 51 publications

References 74 publications

Seasonal and Decadal Groundwater Changes in African Sedimentary Aquifers Estimated Using GRACE Products and LSMs

Seasonal and Decadal Groundwater Changes in African Sedimentary Aquifers Estimated Using GRACE Products and LSMs

Widespread Decline in Terrestrial Water Storage and Its Link to Teleconnections across Asia and Eastern Europe

Modelling the water balance of Lake Victoria (East Africa) – Part 1: Observational analysis

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