Estimation of groundwater storage loss for the Indian Ganga Basin using multiple lines of evidence

Sreekanth Janardhanan; Akhilesh S Nair; J Indu; Dan Pagendam; G S Kaushika

doi:10.1038/s41598-023-28615-y

Estimation of groundwater storage loss for the Indian Ganga Basin using multiple lines of evidence

Sci Rep. 2023 Jan 31;13(1):1797. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-28615-y.

Authors

Sreekanth Janardhanan¹, Akhilesh S Nair², J Indu^{3

4}, Dan Pagendam⁵, G S Kaushika⁶

Affiliations

¹ CSIRO Land and Water, Dutton Park, QLD, Australia. Sreekanth.janardhanan@csiro.au.
² Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen and Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Bergen, Norway.
³ Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
⁴ Interdisciplinary Centre for Climate Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, India.
⁵ CSIRO Data 61, Dutton Park, QLD, Australia.
⁶ Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India.

Abstract

We used remote sensing data, field observations and numerical groundwater modelling to investigate long-term groundwater storage losses in the regional aquifer of the Ganga Basin in India. This comprised trend analysis for groundwater level observations from 2851 monitoring bores, groundwater storage anomaly estimation using GRACE and Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) data sets and numerical modelling of long-term groundwater storage changes underpinned by over 50,000 groundwater level observations and uncertainty analysis. Three analyses based on different methods consistently informed that groundwater storage in the aquifer is declining at a significant rate. Groundwater level trend indicated storage loss in the range - 1.1 to - 3.3 cm year^-1 (median - 2.6 cm year^-1) while the modelling and GRACE storage anomaly methods indicated the storage loss in the range of - 2.1 to - 4.5 cm year^-1 (median - 3.2 cm year^-1) and - 1.0 to - 4.2 cm year^-1 (median - 1.7 cm year^-1) respectively. Probabilistic modelling analysis also indicated that the average groundwater storage is declining in all the major basin states, the highest declining trend being in the western states of Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi. While smaller compared to the western states, average groundwater storage in states further towards east-Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal within the basin are also declining. Time series of storage anomalies obtained from the three methods showed similar trends. Probabilistic storage analysis using the numerical model vetted by observed trend analysis and GRACE data provides the opportunity for predictive analysis of storage changes for future climate and other scenarios.