Reconstructing Terrestrial Water Storage Anomalies Using Satellite Data to Evaluate Water Resource Shortages from 1980 to 2016 in the Inland Yongding River Basin, China

Kangning Sun,Litang Hu,Wenjie Yin,Xin Liu,Andrew H Manning

doi:10.1155/2021/7275242

Kangning Sun, Litang Hu + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/7275242

Copy DOI

Abstract

Water resources in the Yongding River basin (YRB) are one of the important fundamental conditions in supporting regional water conservation and ecological development. However, the historical changes in water resources under recent human activities remain unknown due to very limited observation data. In this study, terrestrial water storage anomalies (TWSA) as well as multiple precipitation and actual evapotranspiration products from satellites were collected, and the accuracy of the data was verified by observed data or pairwise comparisons. The TWSA during 1980-2016 was reconstructed by using the water balance method, and the reconstructed TWSA was verified using GRACE-observed TWSA, the average depth to groundwater in the Beijing Plain from historical document records and the observed runoff from Guanting Reservoir. The reconstructed TWSA data indicated that the significant decrease occurred during 2000–2016 and the average rate of decreasing trend was -11 mm/year, which may have been caused by a decrease in groundwater storage due to agricultural development. However, the reconstructed TWSA decreased slightly during 1980-1999. The establishment of the water storage deficit index (WSDI) showed that there was no drought or mild drought during 1980-1999; however, the water resource shortage during 2000-2016 was more serious due to groundwater storage decreases caused by agricultural development. The WSDI was verified by using the commonly used self-calibrated Palmer drought severity index. The findings are valuable for sustainable water resource management in the YRB.

Highlights

Water resources play an important role in human life and ecosystem maintenance worldwide
The terrestrial water storage anomalies (TWSA) from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) observations, the average depth to groundwater in the Beijing Plain from historical document records, and the runoff from the Guanting Reservoir were used to verify the accuracy of the reconstructed TWSA
The observed depth to groundwater can be compared with the GWS anomalies (GWSA) estimated from the GRACE-observed TWSA by subtracting the SWS anomalies (SWSA), SWE anomalies (SWEA), and SMS anomalies (SMSA)

Summary

Introduction

Water resources play an important role in human life and ecosystem maintenance worldwide. Terrestrial water storage (TWS) is a critical element of the global and continental water resource cycles, including groundwater storage (GWS), surface water storage (SWS, including lakes, wetlands, reservoirs, and canopy interception), soil moisture storage (SMS), and snow water equivalent (SWE). The accurate estimation of TWS is an important issue for understanding the behavior of the hydrological cycle under the influence of human activities. The quantitative study of TWS has been mostly based on hydrological models for the past few decades. Hydrological models often require a large amount of field observation data to construct. Field observations are often inadequate or uneven for most regions [1, 2] and are constrained by difficulties related to access, cost, and logistics [3]. The construction of the model is time- and money-consuming [4]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion