Application assessment of GRACE and CHIRPS data in the Google Earth Engine to investigate their relation with groundwater resource changes (Northwestern region of Iran)

Abstract

In recent years, drought has become a global issue, especially in arid and semi-arid areas. It is without doubt that the identification and monitoring of the drought phenomenon can help to reduce the damages that would occur. In addition, rain is one of the factors which directly affect the water levels of underground water reservoirs. This research applied a linear gradient regression method developed on the basis of GRACE, CHIRPS, and data from monitoring wells to investigate the groundwater storage changes. These data have been analyzed on the Google Earth Engine platform. In order to conduct temporal and spatial analyses, the water levels of the aquifer were generated from the monitoring wells and zoned into five classes. Also, the amount of water storage and rain from the year 2003 to 2017 in the West Azerbaijan Province were investigated using the GRACE satellite and the CHIRPS data, respectively. The results obtained from the GRACE satellite data show that the average water level in the underground reservoirs in Iran had started to decrease since 2008 and reached its peak in 2016 with an average decrease of 16 cm in that year. The average annual decline of groundwater level in the studied time period was 5 cm. A chart developed from the CHIRPS annual rainfall data indicates that the biggest decline in rainfall occurred in 2008, and the declining trend has remained steady. Linear analyses were made on GRACE with CHIRPS results and monitoring wells data separately, from which the correlation coefficients are between 86% and 97%, showing generally high correlations. Furthermore, the results obtained from the zoning of the aquifer showed that in the period of 2004 to 2016, due to the decrease in rainfall and the excessive withdrawal of groundwater, the water levels also decreased.