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V.M. Tiwari, J. Wahr, S. Swensen, GRL 2009: Dwindling groundwater resources in northern India, from satellite gravity observations

Geophysical Research Letters, 36 (2009) L18401; doi: 10.1029/2009GL039401.

Dwindling groundwater resources in northern India, from satellite gravity observations

V. M. Tiwari (National Geophysical Research Institute, CSIR, Hyderabad, India; Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, U.S.A.), J. Wahr (Department of Physics and Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, U.S.A.), and S. Swenson (Advanced Study Program, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, U.S.A.)

Received 2 June 2009; accepted 28 July 2009; published 17 September 2009. 

Abstract

Northern India and its surroundings, home to roughly 600 million people, is probably the most heavily irrigated region in the world. Temporal changes in Earth's gravity field in this region as recorded by the GRACE satellite mission, reveal a steady, large-scale mass loss that we attribute to excessive extraction of groundwater. Combining the GRACE data with hydrological models to remove natural variability, we conclude the region lost groundwater at a rate of 54 ± 9 km3/yr between April, 2002 (the start of the GRACE mission) and June, 2008. This is probably the largest rate of groundwater loss in any comparable-sized region on Earth. Its likely contribution to sea level rise is roughly equivalent to that from melting Alaskan glaciers. This trend, if sustained, will lead to a major water crisis in this region when this non-renewable resource is exhausted.

Tiwari, V. M., J. Wahr, & S. Swenson (2009), Dwindling groundwater resources in northern India, from satellite gravity observations, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L18401; doi: 10.1029/2009GL039401.