Nitrate transport velocity data in the global unsaturated zones

Congyu Yang; Lei Wang; Shengbo Chen; Yuanyin Li; Shuang Huang; Qinghong Zeng; Yanbing Chen

doi:10.1038/s41597-022-01621-x

Nitrate transport velocity data in the global unsaturated zones

Sci Data. 2022 Oct 11;9(1):613. doi: 10.1038/s41597-022-01621-x.

Authors

Congyu Yang¹, Lei Wang², Shengbo Chen³, Yuanyin Li^{4

5}, Shuang Huang⁶, Qinghong Zeng¹, Yanbing Chen¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Geo-exploration Science and Technology, Jilin University, Changchun, China.
² British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, United Kingdom. lei.wang@bgs.ac.uk.
³ College of Geo-exploration Science and Technology, Jilin University, Changchun, China. chensb@jlu.edu.cn.
⁴ British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, United Kingdom.
⁵ Department of Geography, Durham University, Durham, DH1 3LE, United Kingdom.
⁶ MCC Smart City (Wuhan) Engineering Technology CO., Ltd, Wuhan, China.

Abstract

Nitrate pollution in groundwater, which is an international problem, threatens human health and the environment. It could take decades for nitrate to transport in the groundwater system. When understanding the impacts of this nitrate legacy on water quality, the nitrate transport velocity (v_N) in the unsaturated zone (USZ) is of great significance. Although some local USZ v_N data measured or simulated are available, there has been no such a dataset at the global scale. Here, we present a Global-scale unsaturated zone Nitrate transport Velocity dataset (GNV) generated from a Nitrate Time Bomb (NTB) model using global permeability and porosity and global average annual groundwater recharge data. To evaluate GNV, a baseline dataset of USZ v_N was created using locally measured data and global lithological data. The results show that 94.50% of GNV match the baseline USZ v_N dataset. This dataset will largely contribute to research advancement in the nitrate legacy in the groundwater system, provide evidence for managing nitrate water pollution, and promote international and interdisciplinary collaborations.