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Review
. 2017;38(1):131-152.
doi: 10.1007/s10712-016-9399-6. Epub 2016 Nov 15.

Recent Changes in Land Water Storage and its Contribution to Sea Level Variations

Yoshihide Wada  1   2   3   4 , John T Reager  5 , Benjamin F Chao  6 , Jida Wang  7 , Min-Hui Lo  8 , Chunqiao Song  9 , Yuwen Li  6 , Alex S Gardner  5
Affiliations
Review

Recent Changes in Land Water Storage and its Contribution to Sea Level Variations

Yoshihide Wada et al. Surv Geophys. 2017.

Abstract

Sea level rise is generally attributed to increased ocean heat content and increased rates glacier and ice melt. However, human transformations of Earth's surface have impacted water exchange between land, atmosphere, and ocean, ultimately affecting global sea level variations. Impoundment of water in reservoirs and artificial lakes has reduced the outflow of water to the sea, while river runoff has increased due to groundwater mining, wetland and endorheic lake storage losses, and deforestation. In addition, climate-driven changes in land water stores can have a large impact on global sea level variations over decadal timescales. Here, we review each component of negative and positive land water contribution separately in order to highlight and understand recent changes in land water contribution to sea level variations.

Keywords: Climate variability; Groundwater depletion (GWD); Land water storage; Reservoir impoundment; Sea level rise (SLR).

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Time series of the estimated annual contribution of terrestrial water storage change to global sea level over the period 1900–2014 (rates in mm year−1) (modified from Wada et al. 2016)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Cumulative amount of water impoundment in artificial reservoirs as a function of time during the last century, with the equivalent sea level drop on the right-hand scale. The blue dashed curve is the nominal capacity, and the red curve is the “actual” impoundment (see text). Also shown is the continental breakdown. The inset is the per-year water impoundment
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Global mass budget estimate from Reager et al. (2016). This includes a disaggregation of the land water storage estimate into land glaciers, human-driven, and climate-driven water storage
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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