Anthropogenic drought dominates groundwater depletion in Iran.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Ashraf S
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8080627 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Similar Datasets
Project description:Streamflow of the Colorado River Basin is the most overallocated in the world. Recent assessment indicates that demand for this renewable resource will soon outstrip supply, suggesting that limited groundwater reserves will play an increasingly important role in meeting future water needs. Here we analyze 9 years (December 2004 to November 2013) of observations from the NASA Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment mission and find that during this period of sustained drought, groundwater accounted for 50.1 km3 of the total 64.8 km3 of freshwater loss. The rapid rate of depletion of groundwater storage (-5.6 ± 0.4 km3 yr-1) far exceeded the rate of depletion of Lake Powell and Lake Mead. Results indicate that groundwater may comprise a far greater fraction of Basin water use than previously recognized, in particular during drought, and that its disappearance may threaten the long-term ability to meet future allocations to the seven Basin states.
| S-EPMC4373164 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This study explores a general framework for quantifying anthropogenic influences on groundwater budget based on normalized human outflow (hout) and inflow (hin). The framework is useful for sustainability assessment of groundwater systems and allows investigating the effects of different human water abstraction scenarios on the overall aquifer regime (e.g., depleted, natural flow-dominated, and human flow-dominated). We apply this approach to selected regions in the USA, Germany and Iran to evaluate the current aquifer regime. We subsequently present two scenarios of changes in human water withdrawals and return flow to the system (individually and combined). Results show that approximately one-third of the selected aquifers in the USA, and half of the selected aquifers in Iran are dominated by human activities, while the selected aquifers in Germany are natural flow-dominated. The scenario analysis results also show that reduced human withdrawals could help with regime change in some aquifers. For instance, in two of the selected USA aquifers, a decrease in anthropogenic influences by ~20% may change the condition of depleted regime to natural flow-dominated regime. We specifically highlight a trending threat to the sustainability of groundwater in northwest Iran and California, and the need for more careful assessment and monitoring practices as well as strict regulations to mitigate the negative impacts of groundwater overexploitation.
| S-EPMC5635107 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Global groundwater assessments rank Iran among countries with the highest groundwater depletion rate using coarse spatial scales that hinder detection of regional imbalances between renewable groundwater supply and human withdrawals. Herein, we use in situ data from 12,230 piezometers, 14,856 observation wells, and groundwater extraction points to provide ground-based evidence about Iran's widespread groundwater depletion and salinity problems. While the number of groundwater extraction points increased by 84.9% from 546,000 in 2002 to over a million in 2015, the annual groundwater withdrawal decreased by 18% (from 74.6 to 61.3 km3/y) primarily due to physical limits to fresh groundwater resources (i.e., depletion and/or salinization). On average, withdrawing 5.4 km3/y of nonrenewable water caused groundwater tables to decline 10 to 100 cm/y in different regions, averaging 49 cm/y across the country. This caused elevated annual average electrical conductivity (EC) of groundwater in vast arid/semiarid areas of central and eastern Iran (16 out of 30 subbasins), indicating "very high salinity hazard" for irrigation water. The annual average EC values were generally lower in the wetter northern and western regions, where groundwater EC improvements were detected in rare cases. Our results based on high-resolution groundwater measurements reveal alarming water security threats associated with declining fresh groundwater quantity and quality due to many years of unsustainable use. Our analysis offers insights into the environmental implications and limitations of water-intensive development plans that other water-scarce countries might adopt.
| S-EPMC8237601 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundClimate change produces extremes in both temperature and precipitation causing increased drought severity and increased reliance on groundwater resources. Agricultural practices, which rely on groundwater, are sensitive to but also sources of contaminants, including nitrate. How agricultural contamination drives groundwater geochemistry through microbial metabolism is poorly understood.MethodsOn an active cow dairy in the Central Valley of California, we sampled groundwater from three wells at depths of 4.3 m (two wells) and 100 m (one well) below ground surface (bgs) as well as an effluent surface water lagoon that fertilizes surrounding corn fields. We analyzed the samples for concentrations of solutes, heavy metals, and USDA pathogenic bacteria of the Escherichia coli and Enterococcus groups as part of a long term groundwater monitoring study. Whole metagenome shotgun sequencing and assembly revealed taxonomic composition and metabolic potential of the community.ResultsElevated nitrate and dissolved organic carbon occurred at 4.3m but not at 100m bgs. Metagenomics confirmed chemical observations and revealed several Planctomycete genomes, including a new Brocadiaceae lineage and a likely Planctomycetes OM190, as well novel diversity and high abundance of nano-prokaryotes from the Candidate Phyla Radiation (CPR), the Diapherotrites, Parvarchaeota, Aenigmarchaeota, Nanoarchaeota, Nanohaloarchaea (DPANN) and the Thaumarchaeota, Aigarchaeota, Crenarchaeota, Korarchaeota (TACK) superphyla. Pathway analysis suggests community interactions based on complimentary primary metabolic pathways and abundant secondary metabolite operons encoding antimicrobials and quorum sensing systems.ConclusionsThe metagenomes show strong resemblance to activated sludge communities from a nitrogen removal reactor at a wastewater treatment plant, suggesting that natural bioremediation occurs through microbial metabolism. Elevated nitrate and rich secondary metabolite biosynthetic capacity suggest incomplete remediation and the potential for novel pharmacologically active compounds.
| S-EPMC5383146 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Recent hydrological modelling and Earth observations have located and quantified alarming rates of groundwater depletion worldwide. This depletion is primarily due to water withdrawals for irrigation, but its connection with the main driver of irrigation, global food consumption, has not yet been explored. Here we show that approximately eleven per cent of non-renewable groundwater use for irrigation is embedded in international food trade, of which two-thirds are exported by Pakistan, the USA and India alone. Our quantification of groundwater depletion embedded in the world's food trade is based on a combination of global, crop-specific estimates of non-renewable groundwater abstraction and international food trade data. A vast majority of the world's population lives in countries sourcing nearly all their staple crop imports from partners who deplete groundwater to produce these crops, highlighting risks for global food and water security. Some countries, such as the USA, Mexico, Iran and China, are particularly exposed to these risks because they both produce and import food irrigated from rapidly depleting aquifers. Our results could help to improve the sustainability of global food production and groundwater resource management by identifying priority regions and agricultural products at risk as well as the end consumers of these products.
| S-EPMC7427584 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Depletion of groundwater resources has been identified in numerous global aquifers, suggesting that extractions have exceeded natural recharge rates in critically important global freshwater supplies. Groundwater depletion has been ascribed to groundwater pumping, often ignoring influences of direct and indirect consequences of climate variability. Here, we explore relations between natural and human drivers and spatiotemporal changes in groundwater storage derived from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites using regression procedures and dominance analysis. Changes in groundwater storage are found to be influenced by direct climate variability, whereby groundwater recharge and precipitation exhibited greater influence as compared to groundwater pumping. Weak influence of groundwater pumping may be explained, in part, by quasi-equilibrium aquifer conditions that occur after "long-time" pumping, while precipitation and groundwater recharge records capture groundwater responses linked to climate-induced groundwater depletion. Evaluating groundwater response to climate variability is critical given the reliance of groundwater resources to satisfy water demands and impending changes in climate variability that may threaten future water availability.
| S-EPMC6411996 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Although Iran's Ghaen Plain provides saffron to much of the world, no regional groundwater quality (GQ) assessment has yet been undertaken. Given the region's potential for saltwater intrusion and heavy metal contamination, it is important to assess the GQ and determine its main probable source of pollution (MPSP). Such knowledge would allow for informed mitigation or elimination of the potential adverse health effects of this groundwater through its use as drinking water, or indirectly as a result of the consumption of groundwater-irrigated crops. Total dissolved solids, sodium, and chloride in the water of the majority of 16 wells sampled within the region exceeded World Health Organization and Iranian permissible standards for drinking water. The groundwater proved to only be suitable for irrigating salt tolerant crops under good drainage conditions. Due to the precipitation of calcium carbonate in the water supply facilities, the water from all wells was deemed unsuitable for industrial purposes. Heavy metal pollution and contamination indices showed no groundwater contamination. Analysis of ionic ratios and the application of principal components analysis indicated the MPSP to be saltwater intrusion, with the geology subtending the plain, and to a lesser extent, anthropogenic activities. Reducing groundwater withdrawals, particularly those for agricultural production by using high performance irrigation methods could reduce saltwater intrusion and improve GQ in the Ghaen Plain.
| S-EPMC5800271 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The data was obtained from fluoride ion concentrations determined in groundwater sources of Gonabad. A number of 144 samples from 12 drinking groundwater wells located in different regions at the mid of spring, summer, autumn and winter from each regions, were collected from spring 2016 to spring of 2017. The fluoride ions in the samples were determined through the SPADNS colorimetric method at a wavelength of 580 nm. Dispersion of fluoride ions in terms of concentration in groundwater resources of Gonabad was planned using geographic information system (GIS) base on inverse distance weighted (IDW) method. The data showed that lowest and highest concentration of fluoride ions were determined 0.46 in winter and 1.56 mg/l in summer season, respectively. The average, max and min amount of fluoride concentration in groundwater resources of Gonabad were 0.67 ± 0.03, 1.56 and 0.46 mg/L, respectively. The average chemical parameters concentration of Potassium, Sodium, Magnesium, Calcium, Phosphate, Nitrate, Bicarbonate, Sulfate and Chloride were 6.61 ± 1.2, 281.17 ± 3.08, 26.75 ± 2.55, 68.14 ± 3.89, 0.2 ± 0.04, 10 ± 1.83, 275.02 ± 7.20, 282.08 ± 5.04 and 235 ± 5.83 mg/L, respectively.
| S-EPMC6186961 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Significant groundwater depletion in regions where grains are procured for public distribution is a primary sustainability challenge in India. We identify specific changes in the Indian Government’s Procurement & Distribution System as a primary solution lever. Irrigation, using groundwater, facilitated by subsidized electricity, is seen as vital for meeting India’s food security goals. Using over a century of daily climate data and recent spatially detailed economic, crop yield, and related parameters, we use an optimization model to show that by shifting the geographies where crops are procured from and grown, the government’s procurement targets could be met on average even without irrigation, while increasing net farm income and arresting groundwater depletion. Allowing irrigation increases the average net farm income by 30%. The associated reduction in electricity subsidies in areas with significant groundwater depletion can help offset the needed spatial re-distribution of farm income, a key political obstacle to changes in the procurement system. Using optimization models with climate, crop & economic data, the authors show that India can stop groundwater depletion, reduce energy use and meet food/nutrition targets by changing where it sources crops for its food procurement and distribution system.
| S-EPMC9192749 | biostudies-literature
Project description:California is currently in the midst of a record-setting drought. The drought began in 2012 and now includes the lowest calendar-year and 12-mo precipitation, the highest annual temperature, and the most extreme drought indicators on record. The extremely warm and dry conditions have led to acute water shortages, groundwater overdraft, critically low streamflow, and enhanced wildfire risk. Analyzing historical climate observations from California, we find that precipitation deficits in California were more than twice as likely to yield drought years if they occurred when conditions were warm. We find that although there has not been a substantial change in the probability of either negative or moderately negative precipitation anomalies in recent decades, the occurrence of drought years has been greater in the past two decades than in the preceding century. In addition, the probability that precipitation deficits co-occur with warm conditions and the probability that precipitation deficits produce drought have both increased. Climate model experiments with and without anthropogenic forcings reveal that human activities have increased the probability that dry precipitation years are also warm. Further, a large ensemble of climate model realizations reveals that additional global warming over the next few decades is very likely to create ∼ 100% probability that any annual-scale dry period is also extremely warm. We therefore conclude that anthropogenic warming is increasing the probability of co-occurring warm-dry conditions like those that have created the acute human and ecosystem impacts associated with the "exceptional" 2012-2014 drought in California.
| S-EPMC4386330 | biostudies-literature