Groundwater storage change analysis using GRACE data and regional hydrogeological effects in Korea

Changes in the amount, intensity, frequency and type of in conjunction with global warming and climate change critically impact groundwater recharge and subsequantly groundwater level fluctuation.

This study estimated and predicted groundwater level fluctuation with regarding Korea's regional climate change scenarios as well as the GRACE for measuring changes in total, column-integrated terrestrial water storage (TWS) from space. Hourly groundwater level data from 334 national groundwater monitoring stations (NGMSs) operated by the Water Resources Management Information System (WAMIS) of the Korea Water Corporation (http://www.wamis.go.kr/eng/main.aspx) were used for the analysis of long-term variation in relation to climate change. For the study, groundwater level change of from 2002 to 2014 was compared with precipitation amount as well as with GRACE data. At the scale of the river basins, a good relationship was found between groundwater level fluctuation and preciptation amount change as well as between groundwater level fluctuation and TWS data from GRACE. This study aims to assess as groundwater storage (GWS) changes in South Korea as comparing groundwater level data by national groundwater monitoring stations (NGMSs) and GRACE data.