Assessing terrestrial water storage variations in Afghanistan using GRACE and FLDAS-Central Asia data

• DOI: 10.1016/j.ejrh.2024.101906
• Publication Date: 2024-07-30T22:57:03Z
• Authors: Son K. Do; Fazlullah Akhtar; Benjamin Goffin; Aashutosh Aryal; Thanh-Nhan-Duc Tran; Molly Lipscomb; Venkataraman Lakshmi
• Keywords: Central Asia; Water storage

Afghanistan, Central Asia. In this study, we evaluated the terrestrial water storage dynamics in Afghanistan and its five major river basins using anomalies (TWSA) from three Gravity Recovery Climate Experiment (GRACE) mascons observations JPL, CSR, GSFC processing centers, Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) Land Data Assimilation System – Asia (FLDAS-CA) simulation. Since 2008, due to intense prolonged drought conditions groundwater overexploitation, TWS has been decreasing at an alarming rate. The average slopes of TWSA trend for GRACE period (2003–2016) products range between − 3.6 4.8 mm/year. decrease is further exacerbated during GRACE-FO (2019–2022), ranging 20.4 30 Because heavily relied on country but human-induced change (i.e., extraction) not simulated FLDAS-CA, a significant difference could be observed FLDAS-CA results, especially following after each severe event (e.g., 2018) when substantial extraction occurred. assimilation into framework will undoubtedly have positive impact decision-makers local stakeholders preparing mitigating impacts overexploitation