Abstract
Globally, surface water, groundwater, soil moisture, snow storage, permafrost, canopy water, and wet biomass constituents make up terrestrial water storage (TWS), which plays a significant role in the hydrological water balance. Groundwater storage (GWS) is a major parameter that plays a significant role in groundwater resource management. The groundwater modeling tools and in situ data are not enough to cover the large areas. Recently, remote sensing technology can be used to collect continuous information on the hydrological cycle in a low-cost way. The spatio-temporal measures of groundwater storage anomalies are helpful for sustainable groundwater management strategies. The ability of the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite and the Global Land Data Assimilate System (GLDAS) to detect GWS in the Rachna Doab transboundary, which is experiencing hazardous groundwater extraction, is assessed in this study. The spatio-temporal groundwater storage variations were evaluated from January 2005 to December 2015 using GRACE satellite data. The GRACE-based GWS anomalies positively agreed with groundwater levels of in situ data. The statistical analysis (RMSE = 26.34 mm, correlation = 0.65) demonstrates that GRACE has competently captured both phase and magnitude in Rachna Doab. Still, there is a significant deviation in the trend of groundwater storage detected from June 2007 to July 2009, where in situ data have revealed a considerable rise in GWS compared to GRACE-derived GWS. The mean GWS changes of Rachna Doab are 1.4 cm for the year 2015. Compared to the relevant year, the increase in groundwater level is due to a high amount of rainfall in 2015. The average groundwater storage variation data for 2005–2015 showed a decline of 0.39 mm in the region. The region requires to adopt water-saving practices and groundwater policies implementation.
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Acknowledgements
This work is supported by National Key Research & Development Program of China (2021YFC3201204), Natural Science Foundation of China (51779179), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2042021kf0200), and Open Research Fund of Guangxi Key Laboratory of Water Engineering Materials and Structures, Guangxi Institute of Water Resources Research (GXHRI-WEMS-2022-01).
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Adeel Ahmad Nadeem helped in methodology, investigation, writing original draft. Yuanyuan Zha was involved in conceptualization, resources, project administration, supervision. Kashif Mehmood wrote the review and edited and curated the data. Muhammad Awais conceptualized the study and wrote the review and edited. Muhammad Mannan Afzal investigated the study and curated the data. Hamid Hussain wrote the review and English edited. Asma Shaheen helped in optimization. Bilal Aslam wrote the review and edited.
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Nadeem, A.A., Zha, Y., Mehmood, K. et al. Quantification of temporal variations in groundwater level using satellite imagery technique: a case study of Rachna Doab, Pakistan. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 20, 2565–2580 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-022-04162-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-022-04162-3