Linkages between GRACE water storage, hydrologic extremes, and climate teleconnections in major African aquifers
Water resources management is a critical issue in Africa where many regions are subjected to sequential droughts and floods. The objective of our work was to assess spatiotemporal variability in water storage and related controls (climate, human intervention) in major African aquifers and consider a...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac3bfc |
| _version_ | 1827869653535293440 |
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| author | Bridget R Scanlon Ashraf Rateb Assaf Anyamba Seifu Kebede Alan M MacDonald Mohammad Shamsudduha Jennifer Small Alexander Sun Richard G Taylor Hua Xie |
| author_facet | Bridget R Scanlon Ashraf Rateb Assaf Anyamba Seifu Kebede Alan M MacDonald Mohammad Shamsudduha Jennifer Small Alexander Sun Richard G Taylor Hua Xie |
| author_sort | Bridget R Scanlon |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Water resources management is a critical issue in Africa where many regions are subjected to sequential droughts and floods. The objective of our work was to assess spatiotemporal variability in water storage and related controls (climate, human intervention) in major African aquifers and consider approaches toward more sustainable development. Different approaches were used to track water storage, including GRACE/GRACE Follow On satellites for Total Water Storage (TWS); satellite altimetry for reservoir storage, MODIS satellites for vegetation indices, and limited ground-based monitoring. Results show that declining trends in TWS (60–73 km ^3 over the 18 yr GRACE record) were restricted to aquifers in northern Africa, controlled primarily by irrigation water use in the Nubian and NW Saharan aquifers. Rising TWS trends were found in aquifers in western Africa (23–49 km ^3 ), attributed to increased recharge from land use change and cropland expansion. Interannual variability dominated TWS variability in eastern and southern Africa, controlled primarily by climate extremes. Climate teleconnections, particularly El Nino Southern Oscillation and Indian Ocean Dipole, strongly controlled droughts and floods in eastern and southern Africa. Huge aquifer storage in northern Africa suggests that the recent decadal storage declines should not impact the regional aquifers but may affect local conditions. Increasing groundwater levels in western Africa will need to be managed because of locally rising groundwater flooding. More climate resilient water management can be accomplished in eastern and southern Africa by storing water from wet to dry climate cycles. Accessing the natural water storage provided by aquifers in Africa is the obvious way to manage the variability between droughts and floods. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:47:10Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-95d5996c3698422c912021839d9e4433 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:47:10Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-95d5996c3698422c912021839d9e44332023-08-09T15:22:21ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262022-01-0117101404610.1088/1748-9326/ac3bfcLinkages between GRACE water storage, hydrologic extremes, and climate teleconnections in major African aquifersBridget R Scanlon0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1234-4199Ashraf Rateb1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8875-1508Assaf Anyamba2Seifu Kebede3Alan M MacDonald4https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6636-1499Mohammad Shamsudduha5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9708-7223Jennifer Small6Alexander Sun7https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6365-8526Richard G Taylor8https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9867-8033Hua Xie9Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX, United States of AmericaBureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX, United States of AmericaNASA/Goddard Space Flight Center , Greenbelt, MD, United States of AmericaSchool of Engineering, Centre for Water Resources Research, University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) , Pietermartizburg, South AfricaBritish Geological Survey, Lyell Centre , Edinburgh, United KingdomDepartment of Geography, University College London , London, United KingdomNASA/Goddard Space Flight Center , Greenbelt, MD, United States of AmericaBureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX, United States of AmericaDepartment of Geography, University College London , London, United KingdomEnvironment and Production Technology Division, International Food Policy Research Institute , Washington, DC, United States of AmericaWater resources management is a critical issue in Africa where many regions are subjected to sequential droughts and floods. The objective of our work was to assess spatiotemporal variability in water storage and related controls (climate, human intervention) in major African aquifers and consider approaches toward more sustainable development. Different approaches were used to track water storage, including GRACE/GRACE Follow On satellites for Total Water Storage (TWS); satellite altimetry for reservoir storage, MODIS satellites for vegetation indices, and limited ground-based monitoring. Results show that declining trends in TWS (60–73 km ^3 over the 18 yr GRACE record) were restricted to aquifers in northern Africa, controlled primarily by irrigation water use in the Nubian and NW Saharan aquifers. Rising TWS trends were found in aquifers in western Africa (23–49 km ^3 ), attributed to increased recharge from land use change and cropland expansion. Interannual variability dominated TWS variability in eastern and southern Africa, controlled primarily by climate extremes. Climate teleconnections, particularly El Nino Southern Oscillation and Indian Ocean Dipole, strongly controlled droughts and floods in eastern and southern Africa. Huge aquifer storage in northern Africa suggests that the recent decadal storage declines should not impact the regional aquifers but may affect local conditions. Increasing groundwater levels in western Africa will need to be managed because of locally rising groundwater flooding. More climate resilient water management can be accomplished in eastern and southern Africa by storing water from wet to dry climate cycles. Accessing the natural water storage provided by aquifers in Africa is the obvious way to manage the variability between droughts and floods.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac3bfcAfrica water storageGRACE satellitesclimate teleconnectionssustainable groundwater managementfloods and droughtsmanaged aqufier recharge |
| spellingShingle | Bridget R Scanlon Ashraf Rateb Assaf Anyamba Seifu Kebede Alan M MacDonald Mohammad Shamsudduha Jennifer Small Alexander Sun Richard G Taylor Hua Xie Linkages between GRACE water storage, hydrologic extremes, and climate teleconnections in major African aquifers Environmental Research Letters Africa water storage GRACE satellites climate teleconnections sustainable groundwater management floods and droughts managed aqufier recharge |
| title | Linkages between GRACE water storage, hydrologic extremes, and climate teleconnections in major African aquifers |
| title_full | Linkages between GRACE water storage, hydrologic extremes, and climate teleconnections in major African aquifers |
| title_fullStr | Linkages between GRACE water storage, hydrologic extremes, and climate teleconnections in major African aquifers |
| title_full_unstemmed | Linkages between GRACE water storage, hydrologic extremes, and climate teleconnections in major African aquifers |
| title_short | Linkages between GRACE water storage, hydrologic extremes, and climate teleconnections in major African aquifers |
| title_sort | linkages between grace water storage hydrologic extremes and climate teleconnections in major african aquifers |
| topic | Africa water storage GRACE satellites climate teleconnections sustainable groundwater management floods and droughts managed aqufier recharge |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac3bfc |
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