Both meteorological droughts and human activities modulated groundwater variations in the northern Yellow River Basin

Groundwater level declines are largely associated with natural processes and human activities. In particular, the drivers of groundwater change can be more complex during meteorological drought owing to human activities. However, disentangling their specific contribution remains poorly understood. B...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hydrology Research 2024-09, Vol.55 (9), p.921-935
Main Authors: Yang, Xuening, Shao, Xingmin, Ma, Ning, Zhang, Xuanze, Tian, Jing, Tang, Zixuan, Chen, Yuyin, Tian, Xiaoqiang, Feng, Rui, Wu, Tongjing, Bian, Nan, Miao, Ping, Ma, Hongli, Chen, Bing, Zhang, Yongqiang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aquifers
Climate change
Computer centers
Correlation coefficient
Correlation coefficients
Drought
Environmental restoration
Groundwater
Groundwater levels
Human influences
Hydrology
Impact analysis
Irrigation
Lag time
Precipitation
River basins
Rivers
Semi arid areas
Semiarid zones
Standardized precipitation index
Vegetation
Water shortages
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Summary:Groundwater level declines are largely associated with natural processes and human activities. In particular, the drivers of groundwater change can be more complex during meteorological drought owing to human activities. However, disentangling their specific contribution remains poorly understood. By focusing on semiarid ecosystems in the northern Yellow River Basin – the Ordos – here we elucidate the impact of human activities on the propagation of meteorological droughts to groundwater systems. To comprehensively analyze groundwater variations, we employ the K-means, categorizing them into four distinct patterns. Based on the Pearson correlation coefficient analysis between standardized precipitation index (SPI) and groundwater depth (GWD), we found that the majority of lag time for GWD response to SPI is less than 3 months, and the drivers influencing GWD are classified into three categories: SPI, human activities related to SPI, and human activities unrelated to SPI. Our results reveal that both meteorological droughts and human activities jointly influence GWD across the entire region. Notably, human activities unrelated to SPI have the greatest impact in the irrigation district of Ordos, followed by the western part of Ordos and the Mu Us sandy land in central Ordos. Our findings can guide us to formulate effective drought management policies and practices in semiarid regions.
ISSN:0029-1277
1998-9563
2224-7955
DOI:10.2166/nh.2024.052