scholarly journals Large-scale sensitivities of groundwater and surface water to groundwater withdrawal

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc F. P. Bierkens ◽  
Edwin H. Sutanudjaja ◽  
Niko Wanders
Keyword(s):  
Surface Water ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Groundwater Withdrawal ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Groundwater Depletion ◽  
Steady Increase ◽  
Groundwater Storage ◽  
Aquifer Storage ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Streamflow Depletion

Abstract. Increasing population, economic growth and changes in diet have dramatically increased the demand for food and water over the last decades. To meet increasing demands, irrigated agriculture has expanded into semi-arid areas with limited precipitation and surface water availability. This has greatly intensified the dependence of irrigated crops on groundwater withdrawal and caused a steady increase of non-renewable groundwater use, i.e. groundwater taken out of aquifer storage that will not be replenished in human time scales. One of the effects of groundwater pumping is the reduction in streamflow through capture of groundwater recharge, with detrimental effects on aquatic ecosystems. The degree to which groundwater withdrawal affects streamflow or groundwater storage depends on the nature of the groundwater-surface water interaction (GWSI). So far, analytical solutions that have been derived to calculate the impact of groundwater on streamflow depletion involve single wells and streams and do not allow the GWSI to shift from connected to disconnected, i.e. from a situation with two-way interaction to one with a one-way interaction between groundwater and surface water. Including this shift and also analyse the effects of many wells, requires numerical groundwater models that are expensive to setup. Here, we introduce a simple conceptual analytical framework that allows to estimate to what extent groundwater withdrawal affects groundwater heads and streamflow. It allows for a shift in GWSI, calculates at which critical withdrawal rate such a shift is expected and when it is likely to occur after withdrawal commences. It also provides estimates of streamflow depletion and which part of the groundwater withdrawal comes out of groundwater storage and which parts from a reduction in streamflow. After a local sensitivity analysis, the framework is used to provide global maps of critical withdrawal rates and timing, the areas where current withdrawal exceeds critical limits, and maps of groundwater depletion and streamflow depletion rates that result from groundwater withdrawal. The resulting global depletion rates are similar to those obtained from global hydrological models and satellites. The analytical framework is particularly useful for performing first-order sensitivity studies and for supporting hydroeconomic models that require simple relationships between groundwater withdrawal rates and the evolution of pumping costs and environmental externalities.

A conceptual analytical framework to assess the large-scale effects of groundwater withdrawal on groundwater storage and surface water flow

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc F.P. Bierkens ◽  
Edwin H. Sutanudjaja ◽  
Niko Wanders
Keyword(s):  
Surface Water ◽  
Scale Effects ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Groundwater Withdrawal ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Groundwater Depletion ◽  
Steady Increase ◽  
Groundwater Storage ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Streamflow Depletion

<p>To meet increasing food demands, irrigated agriculture has expanded into semi-arid areas with limited precipitation and surface water availability. This has greatly intensified the dependence of irrigated crops on groundwater withdrawal and caused a steady increase of non-renewable groundwater use. One of the effects of groundwater pumping is the reduction in streamflow through capture of groundwater recharge, with detrimental effects on aquatic ecosystems. The degree to which groundwater withdrawal affects streamflow or groundwater storage depends on the nature of the groundwater-surface water interaction (GWSI). So far, analytical solutions that have been derived to calculate the impact of groundwater on streamflow depletion involve single wells and streams and do not allow the GWSI to shift from connected to disconnected, i.e. from a situation with two-way interaction to one with a one-way interaction between groundwater and surface water. Including this shift and also analyse the effects of many wells, requires numerical groundwater models that are expensive to setup. Here, we introduce a simple conceptual analytical framework that allows to estimate to what extent groundwater withdrawal affects groundwater heads and streamflow. It allows for a shift in GWSI, calculates at which critical withdrawal rate such a shift is expected and when it is likely to occur after withdrawal commences. It also provides estimates of streamflow depletion and which part of the groundwater withdrawal comes out of groundwater storage and which parts from a reduction in streamflow. The framework is used to provide global maps of critical withdrawal rates and timing, the areas where current withdrawal exceeds critical limits, and maps of groundwater depletion and streamflow depletion rates that result from groundwater withdrawal. The resulting global depletion rates are similar to those obtained from global hydrological models and satellites. The analytical framework is particularly useful for performing first-order sensitivity studies and for supporting hydroeconomic models that require simple relationships between groundwater withdrawal rates and the evolution of pumping costs and environmental externalities.</p>

scholarly journals Large-scale sensitivities of groundwater and surface water to groundwater withdrawal

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (11) ◽  
pp. 5859-5878
Author(s):  
Marc F. P. Bierkens ◽  
Edwin H. Sutanudjaja ◽  
Niko Wanders
Keyword(s):  
Surface Water ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Groundwater Withdrawal ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Groundwater Depletion ◽  
Steady Increase ◽  
Groundwater Storage ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Streamflow Depletion

Abstract. Increasing population, economic growth and changes in diet have dramatically increased the demand for food and water over the last decades. To meet increasing demands, irrigated agriculture has expanded into semi-arid areas with limited precipitation and surface water availability. This has greatly intensified the dependence of irrigated crops on groundwater withdrawal and caused a steady increase in groundwater withdrawal and groundwater depletion. One of the effects of groundwater pumping is the reduction in streamflow through capture of groundwater recharge, with detrimental effects on aquatic ecosystems. The degree to which groundwater withdrawal affects streamflow or groundwater storage depends on the nature of the groundwater–surface water interaction (GWSI). So far, analytical solutions that have been derived to calculate the impact of groundwater on streamflow depletion involve single wells and streams and do not allow the GWSI to shift from connected to disconnected, i.e. from a situation with two-way interaction to one with a one-way interaction between groundwater and surface water. Including this shift and also analysing the effects of many wells requires numerical groundwater models that are expensive to set up. Here, we introduce an analytical framework based on a simple lumped conceptual model that allows us to estimate to what extent groundwater withdrawal affects groundwater heads and streamflow at regional scales. It accounts for a shift in GWSI, calculates at which critical withdrawal rate such a shift is expected, and when it is likely to occur after withdrawal commences. It also provides estimates of streamflow depletion and which part of the groundwater withdrawal comes out of groundwater storage and which parts from a reduction in streamflow. After a local sensitivity analysis, the framework is combined with parameters and inputs from a global hydrological model and subsequently used to provide global maps of critical withdrawal rates and timing, the areas where current withdrawal exceeds critical limits and maps of groundwater and streamflow depletion rates that result from groundwater withdrawal. The resulting global depletion rates are compared with estimates from in situ observations and regional and global groundwater models and satellites. Pairing of the analytical framework with more complex global hydrological models presents a screening tool for fast first-order assessments of regional-scale groundwater sustainability and for supporting hydro-economic models that require simple relationships between groundwater withdrawal rates and the evolution of pumping costs and environmental externalities.

scholarly journals Simulating the sensitivity of evapotranspiration and streamflow to large-scale groundwater depletion

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. eaav4574 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura E. Condon ◽  
Reed M. Maxwell
Keyword(s):  
Surface Water ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Groundwater Depletion ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Groundwater Abstraction ◽  
Aquifer Storage ◽  
Storage Losses ◽  
The Impact

Groundwater pumping has caused marked aquifer storage declines over the past century. In addition to threatening the viability of groundwater-dependent economic activities, storage losses reshape the hydrologic landscape, shifting groundwater surface water exchanges and surface water availability. A more comprehensive understanding of modern groundwater-depleted systems is needed as we strive for improved simulations and more efficient water resources management. Here, we begin to address this gap by evaluating the impact of 100 years of groundwater declines across the continental United States on simulated watershed behavior. Subsurface storage losses reverberate throughout hydrologic systems, decreasing streamflow and evapotranspiration. Evapotranspiration declines are focused in water-limited periods and shallow groundwater regions. Streamflow losses are widespread and intensify along drainage networks, often occurring far from the point of groundwater abstraction. Our integrated approach illustrates the sensitivity of land surface simulations to groundwater storage levels and a path toward evaluating these connections in large-scale models.

Lumped hydrological model for reasonable, long- term predictions of groundwater storage and depletion

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fahad Ejaz ◽  
Thomas Wöhling ◽  
Nowak Wolfgang
Keyword(s):  
River Discharge ◽  
Groundwater Depletion ◽  
Hydrological Models ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Groundwater Storage ◽  
Discharge Data ◽  
Aquifer Storage ◽  
Lumped Models ◽  
The Impact

<p>Excessive groundwater pumping due to immense agricultural, industrial and municipal demand poses a major threat of aquifer depletion in many areas around the world. The impact of climate change on the global hydrological cycle has further exacerbated the situation. Accurate and reliable prediction of long-term aquifer balance terms is a key prerequisite to manage groundwater sustainably. To deal with uncertainties of such predictions, lumped (conceptual) hydrological models could help with their computational speed that allows for Monte-Carlo simulation. Compared to more complex models, lumped models are fast, lean on data requirement and capable to quantify uncertainty. However, lumped models are mainly designed to simulate river discharge only, not aquifer storage. Even the standard practice for calibrating lumped hydrological models only includes river discharge, as data on groundwater storage is not directly accessible. In this study, we hypothesize that we can extend the HBV model by additional water budget and groundwater storage terms, and calibrated it on both groundwater storage data and discharge data. Then, we test whether its predictions of groundwater storage levels withstand validation tests. To avoid problems with unavailability of data for calibration and validation in a first proof of concept, we build a virtual reality with a MODFLOW-based model, driven with synthetic weather data over a period of more than 50 years. For rigorous testing, we cast calibration into the framework of Bayesian parameter inference, and validate with metrics that assess the appropriateness of the Bayesian prediction distribution of groundwater storage. We test our idea in the Wairau Plain aquifer, New Zealand. Poor understanding of recharge mechanisms and hence declining groundwater levels are the major hindrance for sustainable groundwater management in our study area. We pay specific attention to river-groundwater exchange processes, to the forecast of aquifer storage dynamics, and to groundwater depletion in a hypothetical, persistent draught. The purpose is to provide a proof of concept whether lumped models can be adapted and made suitable to predict declining groundwater resources up to full depletion, as an uncertainty-aware decision support system for sustainable management.</p><p> </p>

scholarly journals Anthropogenic drought dominates groundwater depletion in Iran

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samaneh Ashraf ◽  
Ali Nazemi ◽  
Amir AghaKouchak
Keyword(s):  
Economic Security ◽  
Groundwater Depletion ◽  
Groundwater Storage ◽  
Rates Of Change ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
Storage Basin ◽  
Groundwater Reserves ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Hydrological Droughts

AbstractUsing publicly-available average monthly groundwater level data in 478 sub-basins and 30 basins in Iran, we quantify country-wide groundwater depletion in Iran. Natural and anthropogenic elements affecting the dynamics of groundwater storage are taken into account and quantified during the period of 2002–2015. We estimate that the total groundwater depletion in Iran to be ~ 74 km3 during this period with highly localized and variable rates of change at basin and sub-basin scales. The impact of depletion in Iran’s groundwater reserves is already manifested by extreme overdrafts in ~ 77% of Iran’s land area, a growing soil salinity across the entire country, and increasing frequency and extent of land subsidence in Iran’s planes. While meteorological/hydrological droughts act as triggers and intensify the rate of depletion in country-wide groundwater storage, basin-scale groundwater depletions in Iran are mainly caused by extensive human water withdrawals. We warn that continuation of unsustainable groundwater management in Iran can lead to potentially irreversible impacts on land and environment, threatening country’s water, food, socio-economic security.

Remote sensing of groundwater storage change - past, present and future

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanna Werth ◽  
Manoochehr Shirzaei ◽  
Grace Carlson ◽  
Chandrakanta Ojha
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Surface Deformation ◽  
Central Valley ◽  
Groundwater Depletion ◽  
High Temporal Resolution ◽  
Hydrological Models ◽  
Groundwater Storage ◽  
Aquifer System ◽  
Vertical Land Motion ◽  
The Impact

<p>Groundwater remains one of the least comprehensively monitored storage components in the hydrological cycle, because it's flow and storage processes are strongly linked to geology of the underground and because direct observations from well sites provide only point observations of complex and partly deep aquifer systems.</p><p>In recent years, geodetic methods have become increasingly available to complement ground-based observations and to expand investigations of the impact of climate extremes or human water use on groundwater storage variability. Satellite gravimetry from the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE/FO) has been shown to be sensitive to groundwater depletion at large spatial scales (> 300km) and relatively high temporal resolution (monthly). These data provide a valuable boundary condition for regional studies, and they have been applied widely to improve parameter and structure of hydrological models.</p><p>Moreover, changes in groundwater stocks cause surface deformation associated with regional elastic loading of the Earth’s crust and localized poroelastic compaction of the aquifer skeleton, which are detectable by GPS and InSAR. The loading signal is typically much smaller than the land subsidence due to poroelastic compaction and thus masks out the loading signal adjacent to the aquifer system. However, the poroelastic signal can be used to estimate groundwater volume change in confined aquifer units and provides insight into the mechanical properties of the aquifer system. Also, the deformation sensors provide spatial resolutions of tens of meters (e.g., InSAR) to several kilometers (e.g., GPS) that can be used to solve for the volume of fluid removed from the aquifer system.</p><p>In this presentation, we demonstrate and discuss the applicability of poroelastic modeling, by applying GPS and InSAR based observations of vertical land motion, to quantify groundwater storage changes. Using the Central Valley in California as an example, we will show when this approach is applicable and when it is not, depending on the type of aquifer and observed deformation compared to water level changes. Using a 1-D poroelastic calculation based on deformation data, we find a groundwater loss of 21.3±7.2 km<sup>3</sup> for the entire Central Valley during 2007-2010 and of 29.3±8.7 km<sup>3</sup> for the San Joaquin Valley during 2012-2015. These loss estimates during drought are consistent with that of GRACE-based estimates considering uncertainty ranges.</p><p>Finally, we will discuss the increased availability of high-resolution radar data from Sentinel 1A/B as well as the upcoming radar mission NASA-ISRO SAR Mission (NISAR), to be launched in 2022, and how this will allow for high-resolution monitoring of vertical land motion and with that of compaction in confined aquifers around the world. The availability of these datasets increases the capability of geodetic methods for groundwater monitoring at higher spatial resolution than GRACE data, hence, providing the potential to apply these datasets to further improve parameterization and formulation of groundwater routines in regional to large-scale hydrological models.</p>

scholarly journals Spatial characterization of long-term hydrological change in the Arkavathy watershed adjacent to Bangalore, India

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 595-610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gopal Penny ◽  
Veena Srinivasan ◽  
Iryna Dronova ◽  
Sharachchandra Lele ◽  
Sally Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Surface Water ◽  
Temporal Trends ◽  
Water Bodies ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Groundwater Depletion ◽  
Groundwater Abstraction ◽  
Hydrological Change ◽  
Surface Water Bodies

Abstract. The complexity and heterogeneity of human water use over large spatial areas and decadal timescales can impede the understanding of hydrological change, particularly in regions with sparse monitoring of the water cycle. In the Arkavathy watershed in southern India, surface water inflows to major reservoirs decreased over a 40-year period during which urbanization, groundwater depletion, modification of the river network, and changes in agricultural practices also occurred. These multiple, interacting drivers combined with limited hydrological monitoring make attribution of the causes of diminishing water resources in the watershed challenging and impede effective policy responses. To mitigate these challenges, we developed a novel, spatially distributed dataset to understand hydrological change by characterizing the residual trends in surface water extent that remain after controlling for precipitation variations and comparing the trends with historical land use maps to assess human drivers of change. Using an automated classification approach with subpixel unmixing, we classified water extent in nearly 1700 man-made lakes, or tanks, in Landsat images from 1973 to 2010. The classification results compared well with a reference dataset of water extent of tanks (R2 = 0.95). We modeled the water extent of 42 clusters of tanks in a multiple regression on simple hydrological covariates (including precipitation) and time. Inter-annual variability in precipitation accounted for 63 % of the predicted variability in water extent. However, precipitation did not exhibit statistically significant trends in any part of the watershed. After controlling for precipitation variability, we found statistically significant temporal trends in water extent, both positive and negative, in 13 of the clusters. Based on a water balance argument, we inferred that these trends likely reflect a non-stationary relationship between precipitation and watershed runoff. Independently of precipitation, water extent increased in a region downstream of Bangalore, likely due to increased urban effluents, and declined in the northern portion of the Arkavathy. Comparison of the drying trends with land use indicated that they were most strongly associated with irrigated agriculture, sourced almost exclusively by groundwater. This suggests that groundwater abstraction was a major driver of hydrological change in this watershed. Disaggregating the watershed-scale hydrological response via remote sensing of surface water bodies over multiple decades yielded a spatially resolved characterization of hydrological change in an otherwise poorly monitored watershed. This approach presents an opportunity to understand hydrological change in heavily managed watersheds where surface water bodies integrate upstream runoff and can be delineated using satellite imagery.

scholarly journals Evaluating integrated water management strategies to inform hydrological drought mitigation

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (10) ◽  
pp. 3113-3139
Author(s):  
Doris E. Wendt ◽  
John P. Bloomfield ◽  
Anne F. Van Loon ◽  
Margaret Garcia ◽  
Benedikt Heudorfer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Surface Water ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Water Demand ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Drought Management ◽  
Groundwater Storage ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Hydrological Droughts

Abstract. Managing water–human systems during water shortages or droughts is key to avoid the overexploitation of water resources and, in particular, groundwater. Groundwater is a crucial water resource during droughts as it sustains both environmental and anthropogenic water demand. Drought management is often guided by drought policies, to avoid crisis management, and actively introduced management strategies. However, the impact of drought management strategies on hydrological droughts is rarely assessed. In this study, we present a newly developed socio-hydrological model, simulating the relation between water availability and managed water use over 3 decades. Thereby, we aim to assess the impact of drought policies on both baseflow and groundwater droughts. We tested this model in an idealised virtual catchment based on climate data, water resource management practices and drought policies in England. The model includes surface water storage (reservoir), groundwater storage for a range of hydrogeological conditions and optional imported surface water or groundwater. These modelled water sources can all be used to satisfy anthropogenic and environmental water demand. We tested the following four aspects of drought management strategies: (1) increased water supply, (2) restricted water demand, (3) conjunctive water use and (4) maintained environmental flow requirements by restricting groundwater abstractions. These four strategies were evaluated in separate and combined scenarios. Results show mitigated droughts for both baseflow and groundwater droughts in scenarios applying conjunctive use, particularly in systems with small groundwater storage. In systems with large groundwater storage, maintaining environmental flows reduces hydrological droughts most. Scenarios increasing water supply or restricting water demand have an opposing effect on hydrological droughts, although these scenarios are in balance when combined at the same time. Most combined scenarios reduce the severity and occurrence of hydrological droughts, given an incremental dependency on imported water that satisfies up to a third of the total anthropogenic water demand. The necessity for importing water shows the considerable pressure on water resources, and the delicate balance of water–human systems during droughts calls for short-term and long-term sustainability targets within drought policies.

scholarly journals Systematic shifts in Budyko relationships caused by groundwater storage changes

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 1117-1135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura E. Condon ◽  
Reed M. Maxwell
Keyword(s):  
Surface Water ◽  
Conceptual Models ◽  
Dynamic Equilibrium ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Systematic Bias ◽  
Groundwater Storage ◽  
Water Partitioning ◽  
Water Outflow ◽  
The Impact ◽  
And Storage

Abstract. Traditional Budyko analysis is predicated on the assumption that the watershed of interest is in dynamic equilibrium over the period of study, and thus surface water partitioning will not be influenced by changes in storage. However, previous work has demonstrated that groundwater–surface water interactions will shift Budyko relationships. While modified Budyko approaches have been proposed to account for storage changes, given the limited ability to quantify groundwater fluxes and storage across spatial scales, additional research is needed to understand the implications of these approximations. This study evaluates the impact of storage changes on Budyko relationships given three common approaches to estimating evapotranspiration fractions: (1) determining evapotranspiration from observations, (2) calculating evapotranspiration from precipitation and surface water outflow, and (3) adjusting precipitation to account for storage changes. We show conceptually that groundwater storage changes will shift the Budyko relationship differently depending on the way evapotranspiration is estimated. A 1-year transient simulation is used to mimic all three approaches within a numerical framework in which groundwater–surface water exchanges are prevalent and can be fully quantified. The model domain spans the majority of the continental US and encompasses 25 000 nested watersheds ranging in size from 100 km2 to over 3 000 000 km2. Model results illustrate that storage changes can generate different spatial patterns in Budyko relationships depending on the approach used. This shows the potential for systematic bias when comparing studies that use different approaches to estimating evapotranspiration. Comparisons between watersheds are also relevant for studies that seek to characterize variability in the Budyko space using other watershed characteristics. Our results demonstrate that within large complex domains the correlation between storage changes and other relevant watershed properties, such as aridity, makes it difficult to easily isolate storage changes as an independent predictor of behavior. However, we suggest that, using the conceptual models presented here, comparative studies could still easily evaluate a range of spatially heterogeneous storage changes by perturbing individual points to better incorporate uncertain storage changes into analysis.

scholarly journals Demonstrating the impact of integrated drought policies on hydrological droughts

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doris E. Wendt ◽  
John P. Bloomfield ◽  
Anne F. Van Loon ◽  
Margaret Garcia ◽  
Benedikt Heudorfer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Surface Water ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Water Demand ◽  
Storage Systems ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Drought Management ◽  
Groundwater Storage ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Hydrological Droughts

Abstract. Managing water-human systems in times of water shortage and droughts is key to avoid overexploitation of water resources, particularly for groundwater, which is a crucial water resource during droughts sustaining both environmental and anthropogenic water demand. Drought management is often guided by drought policies to avoid crisis management and to actively introduce management strategies during droughts. However, the impact of drought management strategies on hydrological droughts is rarely assessed. In this study, we present a newly developed socio-hydrological model, simulating feedbacks between water availability and managed water use over three decades. Thereby, we aim to assess the impact of drought policies on both surface water and groundwater droughts. We tested this model in an idealised catchment based on climate data, water resource management practices, and drought policies in England. The model includes surface water storage (reservoir), groundwater storage for a range of hydrogeological conditions and optional imported surface water or groundwater. These modelled water sources can all be used to satisfy anthropogenic and environmental water demand. We tested four aspects of drought management strategies: 1) increased water supply, 2) restricted water demand, 3) conjunctive water use, and 4) maintained environmental flow requirements by restricting groundwater abstractions. These four strategies were evaluated in separate and combined scenarios. Results show mitigated droughts for both streamflow and groundwater droughts in scenarios applying conjunctive use, particularly in low groundwater storage systems. In high groundwater storage systems, maintaining environmental flows reduces hydrological droughts most. Scenarios increasing or restricting water demand have an opposing effect on droughts, although these scenarios are in balance when combined at the same time. Most combined scenarios reduce the severity and occurrence of hydrological droughts given an incremental dependency on imported water that satisfies up to a third of the total anthropogenic water demand. The necessity for importing water shows the considerable pressure on water resources and the delicate balance of water-human systems during droughts that calls for short-term and long-term sustainability targets within drought policies.

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