Impact of meteorological conditions on water resources in the Upper East Region of Ghana using remotely-sensed and modelled hydrological data

Abstract

Study regionThe Upper East Region, Ghana, West Africa, lies within the Volta Basin, floods annually, and contributes substantially to Ghana’s food production. Study focusWe assessed precipitation (P), evapotranspiration (ET), and total water storage anomalies from GRACE (TWSA) and GLDAS-Noah (TWCA) to study the influence of the UER’s climate on water availability between 2002 and 2017. We analysed (1) the relative uncertainties of the data sets using the triple-cornered hat method, (2) the terrestrial water budget to validate TWSA/TWCA and (3) cross- and multi-correlation analyses to study the relationship between water storage (or availability) and meteorological variables. New hydrological insightsWe found strong correlations between the different P products (r > 0.96), between the different GRACE products (r > 0.95), but not between the different ET products. The hybrid P, TWSA from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and ET from ERA-5 had the smallest relative uncertainties. TWSA increased by 9.8 ± 0.8 mm yr−1 while TWCA decreased. P and ET showed no evidence of a trend and were similarly influenced by the other meteorological variables. However, 93 of 183 months had water surplus and mean net P was positive – indicating the UER received more water than it lost. These agree with the increasing TWSA trend. The water budget validation also confirmed that GRACE can be used for water management; GLDAS-Noah underestimates storage in the UER.