Evaluation of groundwater sustainability in the arid Hexi Corridor of Northwestern China, using GRACE, GLDAS and measured groundwater data products

Sijia Wang; Hu Liu; Yang Yu; Wenzhi Zhao; Qiyue Yang; Jintao Liu

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135829

Evaluation of groundwater sustainability in the arid Hexi Corridor of Northwestern China, using GRACE, GLDAS and measured groundwater data products

Sci Total Environ. 2020 Feb 25:705:135829. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135829. Epub 2019 Nov 30.

Authors

Sijia Wang¹, Hu Liu², Yang Yu³, Wenzhi Zhao⁴, Qiyue Yang⁴, Jintao Liu⁵

Affiliations

¹ Linze Inland River Basin Research Station, Chinese Ecosystem Research Network, Lanzhou 730000, China; Key Laboratory of Ecohydrology of Inland River Basin, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China.
² Linze Inland River Basin Research Station, Chinese Ecosystem Research Network, Lanzhou 730000, China; Key Laboratory of Ecohydrology of Inland River Basin, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China. Electronic address: lhayz@lzb.ac.cn.
³ China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing 100038, China.
⁴ Linze Inland River Basin Research Station, Chinese Ecosystem Research Network, Lanzhou 730000, China; Key Laboratory of Ecohydrology of Inland River Basin, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China.

PMID: 31972954
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135829

Abstract

The exploitation of groundwater resources is of great importance and has become crucial in the last few decades, especially in arid regions, where surface water resources are scarce and unreliable. The Hexi Corridor (HC) is one of the most agriculturally rich and densely populated areas of arid northwestern China. Increasing demand for water, due to rapid population growth, oasis expansion and urbanization, has increased groundwater use, resulting in wide-scale depletion in this region. Sustainable management of aquifers in the HC requires accurate estimates of the current situation of groundwater resource sustainability. In this work, groundwater storage anomaly (∆GWS) were estimated using the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite data, the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) data and the water-table fluctuation (WTF) method based on in-situ groundwater level data. Combined with the groundwater sustainability index (SI_GWS), groundwater sustainability in the HC was then evaluated. Potential factors that could affect regional groundwater sustainability were analyzed by including and testing climate and socio-economic variables during the period of 1981 to 2016. We found that (1) groundwater in the HC has experienced a general deterioration (except for a sudden and sharp increase observed around 2002) in both storage and sustainability, from ∆GWS = 16.79 cm/year and SI_GWS = 0.46 (1985-1990) to ∆GWS = -28.96 cm/year and SI_GWS = 0.008 (2007-2016); (2) the lowest value of groundwater sustainability in the HC appeared in the central and eastern regions (SI_GWS = 0); (3) human activity was confirmed to be the dominant factor driving the processes of deterioration in groundwater sustainability in the HC, and during the research period, it is striking that relatively limited "positive" effects of the water management project were detected on the regional groundwater resource; this result indicates that damaged groundwater sustainability cannot be easily reversed unless a long-term management policy is implemented. This study also proves that GRACE gravity satellite data has great application potential in groundwater sustainability evaluation in arid regions, especially in developing countries where in-situ data are scarce, and highlights the importance of joint management of surface water and groundwater, in groundwater sustainability management.

Keywords: Arid region; GLDAS; GRACE; Groundwater sustainability; WTF method.