Past and Future Contribution of Global Groundwater Depletion to Sea-Level Rise

Material Information

Title:
Past and Future Contribution of Global Groundwater Depletion to Sea-Level Rise
Series Title:
Geophysical Research Letters Volume 39
Creator:
Yoshihide Wada
Ludovicus P.H. van Beek
Frederiek C. Spema Weiland
Benjamin F. Chao
Yun-Hao Wu
Marc F.P. Bierkens
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union
Publication Date:
Language:
English

Subjects

Subjects / Keywords:
Climate Change
Sea Level Rise
Groundwater

Notes

Scope and Content:
Recent studies suggest the increasing contribution of groundwater depletion to global sea-level rise. Groundwater depletion has more than doubled during the last decades, primarily due to increase in water demand, while the increase in water impoundments behind dams has been tapering off since the 1990s. As a result, the contribution of groundwater depletion to sea-level rise is likely to dominate over those of other terrestrial water sources in the coming decades. Yet, no projections into the 21st century are available. Here we present a reconstruction of past groundwater depletion and its contribution to global sea-level variation, as well as 21st century projections based on three combined socio-economic and climate scenarios (SRES) with transient climate forcing from three General Circulation Models (GCMs). We validate and correct estimated groundwater depletion with independent local and regional assessments, and place our results in context of other terrestrial water contributions to sea-level variation.

Record Information

Source Institution:
Florida International University
Rights Management:
Please contact the owning institution for licensing and permissions. It is the user's responsibility to ensure use does not violate any third party rights.
Resource Identifier:
10.1029/2012GL051230 ( doi )

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Aggregations:
Sea Level Rise