Over-pumping groundwater is causing California's San Joaquin Valley to sink, but monitoring these basins from space could help improve management.
. It’s caused the Tulare Basin to sink at a rate of about a foot a year.
Subsidence can also cause structural damage to Earth’s surface, including the things we build on top of it. “We’re damaging civil infrastructure like roads, bridges, pipes, and we’re seeing the surface sink as high as a foot a year,” says Kim, adding that “you’re sometimes permanently losing that storage space for water, so it’s almost as if you’re decreasing the overall limit for your savings account.
NASA Earth Observatory’s map which drew upon 2016 data from the Sentinel-1A satellite, which shows locations in the San Joaquin Valley that are sinking from excessive groundwater pumping.Subsidence can also cause structural damage to Earth’s surface, including the things we build on top of it.
Scientists also do not have a clear baseline of water reserves, Meixner says, which adds even another obstacle in measuring how much of the precious resource is being used over time. “Getting more precise estimates of what the actual change of volume of groundwater is can really assist us with better managing these groundwater basins,” he says.to help the Central Valley evaluate water levels and the impact of over pumping groundwater. Now Kim’s team is offering new insight.
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