NASA study finds human impacts on terrestrial water storage

A new NASA study examines terrestrial water storage from 2002-04 to 2025-11. It reports human activities on every nonpolar continent except Australia.

The NASA study status is new, and the mapped period is 2002-04 to 2025-11. Mary Michael O'Neill, a NASA Goddard Space Flight Center hydrologist, is the lead author.

The study lists 40 regions and 4 continental regions. It places human activities on every nonpolar continent except Australia.

The map has a loss of temporal detail. The work uses two satellites from the GRACE and GRACE-FO missions and 20 years of observations.

Better spatial resolution revealed some human impacts that earlier data had not detected. The analysis also showed that certain known trends were stronger than earlier understood.

Farmland irrigated with groundwater is strongly linked to declines in terrestrial water storage. Storage has been drawn down in California's Central Valley, and declines appeared there, in the southern High Plains of the U.S., and in Chihuahua, Mexico.

In northern India, the downward trend is steeper than previously realized, and the change is faster than earlier estimates suggested.

Parts of sub-Saharan Africa saw increases in rainfed cropland. Millet cultivation is noted where water tables rose even with below-average precipitation. In Maranhão state in northern Brazil, soybean fields have taken the place of forests and shrublands.

For readers tracking the lunar industry, this item tracks NASA, the organization named in the entity context. It records a new agency study and gives verified details about the mapped period, satellite missions, and water-storage findings.