Sustained Groundwater Loss in California's Central Valley Exacerbated by Intense Drought Periods.

ABSTRACT: The accelerated rate of decline in groundwater levels across California's Central Valley results from overdrafting and low rates of natural recharge and is exacerbated by droughts. The lack of observations with an adequate spatiotemporal resolution to constrain the evolution of groundwater resources poses severe challenges to water management efforts. Here we present SAR interferometric measurements of high-resolution vertical land motion across the valley, revealing multiscale patterns of aquifer hydrogeological properties and groundwater storage change. Investigating the depletion and degradation of the aquifer-system during 2007-2010, when the entire valley experienced a severe drought, we find that ~2% of total aquifer-system storage was permanently lost, owing to irreversible compacti

SUBMITTER: Ojha C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6120459 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature