Abstract
Internationally shared, or transboundary, aquifers (TBAs) have long
played an important role in sustaining drinking water supply and food
production, supporting livelihoods of millions of people worldwide.
Rapidly growing populations and their food demands cast significant
doubt on the sustainability of TBAs. Here, this study provides a first
quantitative assessment of TBAs worldwide with an aquifer stress
indicator over the period 1960-2010 using groundwater abstraction,
groundwater recharge, and groundwater contribution to environment flow.
The results reveal that 8% of TBAs worldwide are currently stressed due
to human overexploitation. Over these TBAs the rate of groundwater
pumping increased substantially during the past fifty years, which
worsened the aquifer stress condition. In addition, many TBAs over
Europe, Asia and Africa are not currently stressed, but their aquifer
stress has been increasing at an alarming rate (>100%) for the past
fifty years, due to the increasing reliance on groundwater abstraction
for food production. Groundwater depletion is substantial over several
TBAs including the India River Plain (India, Pakistan), the Paleogene
and Cretaceous aquifers (the Arabian Peninsula), and a few TBAs over the
USA-Mexico border. Improving irrigation efficiency can reduce the amount
of groundwater depletion over some TBAs, but it likely aggravates
groundwater depletion over TBAs where conjunctive use of surface water
and groundwater is prevalent.
Original language | English |
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Pages | H53J-07 |
Publication status | Published - 1 Dec 2013 |
Event | American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2013 - San Francisco, United States Duration: 9 Dec 2013 → 13 Dec 2013 |
Conference
Conference | American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2013 |
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Country/Territory | United States |
City | San Francisco |
Period | 9/12/13 → 13/12/13 |
Keywords
- 1829 HYDROLOGY Groundwater hydrology
- 1847 HYDROLOGY Modeling
- 1834 HYDROLOGY Human impacts
- 1842 HYDROLOGY Irrigation