Groundwater supplies are shrinking at an increasing rate — according to new estimates, annual depletion more than doubled from 126 cubic kilometres in 1960 to 283 cubic kilometres in 2000.
About one-third of the world's inhabitants have limited access to fresh water, and many must draw from underground aquifers — often more rapidly than natural processes can refill them. Marc Bierkens at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and his colleagues combined a groundwater database with a global hydrological model. They found depletion rates to be highest in some of the world's major agricultural regions, including northwest India, northeast China, and the central United States.
The authors also found that a significant amount of the extracted groundwater evaporates and precipitates over the ocean, accounting for about 25% of the annual rise in sea level.
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Hydrology: Groundwater stores running dry. Nature 467, 636 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/467636d
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/467636d
