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...

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Autores principales: Scanlon, Bridget R., Rateb, Ashraf, Anyamba, Assaf, Kebede, Seifu, McDonald, Alan M., Xie, Hua
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: IOP Publishing 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141210
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author Scanlon, Bridget R.
Rateb, Ashraf
Anyamba, Assaf
Kebede, Seifu
McDonald, Alan M.
Xie, Hua
author_browse Anyamba, Assaf
Kebede, Seifu
McDonald, Alan M.
Rateb, Ashraf
Scanlon, Bridget R.
Xie, Hua
author_facet Scanlon, Bridget R.
Rateb, Ashraf
Anyamba, Assaf
Kebede, Seifu
McDonald, Alan M.
Xie, Hua
author_sort Scanlon, Bridget R.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
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 km3 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 km3), 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.
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spelling CGSpace1412102025-12-08T10:06:44Z Linkages between GRACE water storage, hydrologic extremes, and climate teleconnections in major African aquifers Scanlon, Bridget R. Rateb, Ashraf Anyamba, Assaf Kebede, Seifu McDonald, Alan M. Xie, Hua resource management hydrology water management climate water storage aquifers climate change 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 km3 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 km3), 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. 2022-01-01 2024-04-12T13:37:28Z 2024-04-12T13:37:28Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141210 en https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2013.08.011 Open Access IOP Publishing Scanlon, Bridget R.; Rateb, Ashraf; Anyamba, Assaf; Kebede, Seifu; McDonald, Alan M.; Xie, Hua; et al. 2022. Linkages between GRACE water storage, hydrologic extremes, and climate teleconnections in major African aquifers. Environmental Research Letters 17(1): 014046. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac3bfc
spellingShingle resource management
hydrology
water management
climate
water storage
aquifers
climate change
Scanlon, Bridget R.
Rateb, Ashraf
Anyamba, Assaf
Kebede, Seifu
McDonald, Alan M.
Xie, Hua
Linkages between GRACE water storage, hydrologic extremes, and climate teleconnections in major African aquifers
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 resource management
hydrology
water management
climate
water storage
aquifers
climate change
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141210
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