Detect Songhua River Basin Groundwater Spatiotemporal Variation Characteristics by GRACE and Multi‑source Hydrological Data

Objectives Songhua River Basin is located in high latitude area, as one of the most important food-producing areas in China. Exploring and analyzing groundwater storage changes in this region is of great significance to reveal the characteristics of regional groundwater change, to ensure the sustainable development of the social economy and to protect the regional ecological environment.

Methods We use gravity recovery and climate experiment satellite data released by Center for Space Research, combined with global land data assimilation system hydrological model and global precipitation measurement precipitation data to retrieve the groundwater change of Songhua River Basin in the period of 2002—2017. The sustainability index is also introduced to detect the spatial and temporal sustainability of groundwater quantitatively before being compared with precipitation, temperature and measured well data.

Results and Conclusions In the study period, groundwater of Songhua River Basin increases continuously with a rate of 0.34 cm/a, besides the recovery rate of groundwater increases from south to north; groundwater system of Songhua River Basin shows poor sustainability throughout the period; a significant time lag could be found when the groundwater is compared with precipitation and temperature data; satellite inverse result appears to show the same trend with the in-situ well data and appears to have a time lag between them.