Groundwater Loss and Aquifer System Compaction in San Joaquin Valley During 2012-2015 Drought.

ABSTRACT: California's millennium drought of 2012-2015 severely impacted the Central Valley aquifer system and caused permanent loss of groundwater and aquifer storage capacity. To quantify these impacts within the southern San Joaquin Valley, we analyze various complementary measurements, including gravity changes from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites; vertical land motion from Global Positioning System, interferometric synthetic aperture radar, and extensometer; and groundwater level records. The interferometric data set acquired by the Sentinel-1 satellite only spans the period January 2015 and October 2017, while the other data sets span the entire drought period. Using GRACE observations, we find an average groundwater loss of 6.1 ± 2.3 km³/year as a lower b

SUBMITTER: Ojha C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6559157 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature