Comparison of GRACE with in situ hydrological measurement data shows storage depletion in Hai River basin, Northern China

Water storage change has implications not only for the hydrological cycle, but also for sustainable water resource management in especially semi-arid river basins. Satellite/remote sensing techniques have gained increasing application in monitoring basin and regional hydrological processes in recent decades. In this study, the latest version of GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) is used to estimate total water storage change in the Hai River basin (HRB) of Northern China for the period January 2003 to December 2006. Time-series comparisons show a good agreement between the estimated storage change from the GRACE satellite data and in situ hydrological measurement data at especially the seasonal cycle with R = 0.82 and RMSE = 17.25 mm. The good agreement suggests that GRACE detects storage change in the 318 866 km2 HRB study area. It also implies that the in situ hydrological measurements of soil moisture and groundwater sufficiently characterise storage change in the semi-arid river basin. Change in soil moisture storage is less than that in saturated storage, suggesting that storage depletion in the basin is mainly in the saturated zone. Both the GRACE and hydrological measurement data indicate storage loss in the range of 12.72 to 23.76 mm/yr – a phenomenon that has been detected in previous studies in the basin. GRACE hydrology data could therefore be handy in monitoring storage dynamics and water availability in the study area. As GRACE data are available for virtually every region of the world, their application in conjunction with hydrological models could improve hydrological studies. This may lead not only to water balance closures, but also to sustainable water resource management at basin to regional scale.

[1]  R. Rietbroek.  Validation of Oceanic Mass Changes derived from GRACE Gravimetry: A comparison with independent data from Bottom Pressure Recorders in the Southern Ocean , 2007 .

[2]  S. Swenson,et al.  A comparison of terrestrial water storage variations from GRACE with in situ measurements from Illinois , 2006 .

[3]  J. Famiglietti,et al.  Estimating groundwater storage changes in the Mississippi River basin (USA) using GRACE , 2007 .

[4]  李幼升,et al.  Ph , 1989 .

[5]  Sonia I. Seneviratne,et al.  Inferring changes in terrestrial water storage using ERA-40 reanalysis data: The Mississippi River Basin , 2004 .

[6]  G. Vachaud,et al.  Temporal Stability of Spatially Measured Soil Water Probability Density Function , 1985 .

[7]  M. Cheng,et al.  GGM02 – An improved Earth gravity field model from GRACE , 2005 .

[8]  D. Chambers.  Evaluation of new GRACE time‐variable gravity data over the ocean , 2006 .

[9]  Hubert H. G. Savenije,et al.  The bias in GRACE estimates of continental water storage variations , 2006 .

[10]  Yonghua Chen,et al.  The Tropical Atmospheric El Niño Signal in Satellite Precipitation Data and a Global Climate Model , 2007 .

[11]  José Martínez-Fernández,et al.  Temporal Stability of Soil Moisture in a Large‐Field Experiment in Spain , 2003 .

[12]  Xu Yueqing,et al.  GIS-Based Analysis on Spatio-Temporal Change of Groundwater Level in the Hebei Plain , 2005 .

[13]  Fei Tian,et al.  Abrupt change of runoff and its major driving factors in Haihe River Catchment, China , 2009 .

[14]  Qiang Yu,et al.  Ecosystem water use efficiency in an irrigated cropland in the North China Plain , 2009 .

[15]  Yuping Lei,et al.  Seasonal groundwater storage anomaly and vadose zone soil moisture as indicators of precipitation recharge in the piedmont region of Taihang Mountain, North China Plain , 2008 .

[16]  P. Bauer-Gottwein,et al.  How can remote sensing contribute in groundwater modeling? , 2007 .

[17]  S. Swenson,et al.  Remote sensing of groundwater storage changes in Illinois using the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) , 2006 .

[18]  O. Andersen,et al.  Seasonal changes in the European gravity field from GRACE: A comparison with superconducting gravimeters and hydrology model predictions , 2006 .

[19]  Guobin Fu,et al.  Hydro-Climatic Trends of the Yellow River Basin for the Last 50 Years , 2004 .

[20]  Fei Jin.  Groundwater resources in the North China Plain , 1988 .

[21]  Yh Yang.  Optimizing irrigation management for wheat to reduce groundwater depletion in the piedmont region of the Taihang Mountains in the North China Plain , 2006 .

[22]  Robert E. Dickinson,et al.  The Response of Soil Moisture to Long-Term Variability of Precipitation , 2002 .

[23]  Andrew W. Western,et al.  A review of paired catchment studies for determining changes in water yield resulting from alterations in vegetation , 2005 .

[24]  Masataka Watanabe,et al.  Groundwater-table and recharge changes in the Piedmont region of Taihang Mountain in Gaocheng City and its relation to agricultural water use , 2002 .

[25]  J. Kusche,et al.  Decorrelated GRACE time-variable gravity solutions by GFZ, and their validation using a hydrological model , 2009 .

[26]  Global and Regional Gravity Field Solutions from GRACE Observations , 2007 .

[27]  Masataka Watanabe,et al.  Simulation of groundwater dynamics in the North China Plain by coupled hydrology and agricultural models , 2006 .

[28]  F. Bryan,et al.  Time variability of the Earth's gravity field: Hydrological and oceanic effects and their possible detection using GRACE , 1998 .

[29]  Scott Rozelle,et al.  Water saving technology and saving water in China , 2007 .

[30]  Matthew Rodell,et al.  Total basin discharge for the Amazon and Mississippi River basins from GRACE and a land‐atmosphere water balance , 2005 .

[31]  T. Steenhuis,et al.  Groundwater recharge from irrigated cropland in the North China Plain: case study of Luancheng County, Hebei Province, 1949–2000 , 2004 .