For the first paper, researchers examined the planet’s 37 largest aquifers between 2003 and 2013. The eight worst off were classified as overstressed, with nearly no natural replenishment to offset usage. Another five aquifers were found, in descending order, to be extremely or highly stressed, depending upon the level of replenishment in each — still in trouble but with some water flowing back into them. Arabian Aquifer System, an important water source for more than 60 million people, is the most overstressed in the world. The Indus Basin aquifer of northwestern India and Pakistan is the second-most overstressed, and the Murzuk-Djado Basin in northern Africa is third. California’s Central Valley, utilized heavily for agriculture and suffering rapid depletion, was slightly better off but still labeled highly stressed in the first study.
— source sciencedaily.com
Global Water Going Fast
The new research, led by University of California, Irvine scientists, reveals that humans are rapidly draining water from about a third of the world’s biggest underground basins, or aquifers, more rapidly than they can naturally be replenished. The two studies, which are being published in the journal Water Resources Research, represent the first effort to use satellite data to look at groundwater loss all over the planet. The researchers utilized data collect by NASA’s twin Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites.
— source discovery.com