TY - JOUR
T1 - Examining ground and surface water changes in response to environmental variables, land use dynamics, and socioeconomic changes in Canada
AU - Zhu, Yuanhui
AU - Myint, Soe W.
AU - Schaffer-Smith, Danica
AU - Sauchyn, David J.
AU - Xu, Xiaoyong
AU - Piwowar, Joseph M.
AU - Li, Yubin
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by Fulbright Canada Research Chairs (Grant# 9416-CA ) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant# 42001358 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors
PY - 2022/11/15
Y1 - 2022/11/15
N2 - Canada's abundant and high-quality water resources support a growing human population, as well as thriving industrial and agricultural economies. However, recent intense drought conditions have raised concerns for current water resource availability. Patterns of long-term ground and surface water (GSW) changes, and their response to environmental conditions, land-use dynamics, and socioeconomic changes are not well-understood across this large and diverse country. To address this crucial gap, we identified regions of ground and surface water (GSW) changes in all the Provinces of Canada between 2002 and 2016 from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) datasets. We explored the relationships between GSW changes and environmental, socioeconomic, and land-use dynamics over time. We found that all the Provinces of Canada gained a net 4.46 mm Liquid Water Equivalent (LWE) per year, equivalent to a total increase of 66.9 mm LWE. GSW increases were significantly associated with the normalized difference vegetation index and evapotranspiration rates. In contrast, GSW declines were significantly related to deforestation rate, urban expansion, and economic development (median household income). Despite apparent widespread post-drought recovery detected from 2002 to 2016, the rapid GSW declines were also observed in almost all of Western Canada and part of Ontario, amounting to a net loss of 66.13 mm. This indicates that a pronounced drought had emerged. It is anticipated that Canada will be experiencing more frequent and severe droughts under ongoing climate change and increasing demand for water resources.
AB - Canada's abundant and high-quality water resources support a growing human population, as well as thriving industrial and agricultural economies. However, recent intense drought conditions have raised concerns for current water resource availability. Patterns of long-term ground and surface water (GSW) changes, and their response to environmental conditions, land-use dynamics, and socioeconomic changes are not well-understood across this large and diverse country. To address this crucial gap, we identified regions of ground and surface water (GSW) changes in all the Provinces of Canada between 2002 and 2016 from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) datasets. We explored the relationships between GSW changes and environmental, socioeconomic, and land-use dynamics over time. We found that all the Provinces of Canada gained a net 4.46 mm Liquid Water Equivalent (LWE) per year, equivalent to a total increase of 66.9 mm LWE. GSW increases were significantly associated with the normalized difference vegetation index and evapotranspiration rates. In contrast, GSW declines were significantly related to deforestation rate, urban expansion, and economic development (median household income). Despite apparent widespread post-drought recovery detected from 2002 to 2016, the rapid GSW declines were also observed in almost all of Western Canada and part of Ontario, amounting to a net loss of 66.13 mm. This indicates that a pronounced drought had emerged. It is anticipated that Canada will be experiencing more frequent and severe droughts under ongoing climate change and increasing demand for water resources.
KW - Canada
KW - Drought
KW - Environment issues
KW - Ground and surface water changes
KW - Land use dynamics
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115875
DO - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115875
M3 - Article
C2 - 36081259
AN - SCOPUS:85137300709
SN - 0301-4797
VL - 322
JO - Journal of Environmental Management
JF - Journal of Environmental Management
M1 - 115875
ER -