GRACE-derived groundwater variability and its resilience in north India: impact of climatic and socioeconomic factors

Groundwater availability has become a global challenge due to climatic droughts and human interventions. North India has emerged as one of the most groundwater-depleted regions. Our study delves into the linkage between groundwater variability, climatic and anthropogenic factors for the last two decades using the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE-Follow On (GRACE-FO) observations, groundwater levels, climatic and socioeconomic datasets. Our novel spatiotemporal analysis of groundwater storage (GWS) anomaly reveals five episodes of notable changes in north India affected by rainfall variability and groundwater abstraction. The standardized precipitation index (SPI) reveals that the prolonged drought and groundwater pumping during 2015 to 2017 significantly affected GWS. Our results suggest that sufficient rainfall contributed to the replenishment of GWS in some zones during 2018 to 2023, likely due to government recharge programmes. Our findings elucidate the current scenario and underscore a pressing necessity to accelerate groundwater management strategies, ensuring its resilience in future periods of intense drought.