Spatiotemporal analysis of groundwater resources sustainability in South Asia and China using GLDAS data sets

Increasing water consumption and climate change are putting countries globally at risk of running out of water supplies. The provision of groundwater helped reduce global food scarcity, but overexploitation resulted in the depletion of groundwater resources in many regions worldwide. This study applies the concepts of reliability, resiliency, and vulnerability to determine the spatial distribution of sustainability in groundwater resources over the intensive groundwater-irrigated regions of South Asia and China. The satellite-based Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) data of groundwater storage for 2003‒2020 was acquired and used for this reason. The findings showed a decrease in groundwater storage in Northern China, Western India, and Eastern Pakistan, with the highest declination rate in Western India by − 50 to − 200 mm per decade. Groundwater reliability, resiliency, and vulnerability decreased in some regions of the study area, with the highest decrease in west India by − 0.2 to − 0.3 per decade. This caused a decrease in groundwater sustainability in the area at a rate of − 0.1 to − 0.3 per decade. The reduction in groundwater sustainability in western India may be due to intensive groundwater abstraction in those regions. It is important to prevent excessive groundwater pumping in the study area for sustainable development. It also is imperative to adopt sustainable groundwater management strategies, such as reducing groundwater extraction during drought years and growing less water-consuming crops in less sustainable regions.