Seminar

Total terrestrial water storage (TWS) is a fundamental variable of water cycle. TWS in a typical karst region of Southwest China is evaluated using the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite data. Firstly, this research focuses on the methods of leakage correction of GRACE data. The sensitivity of three leakage correction methods (scaling factor, multiplicative and additive correction) using a priori information from five model simulations (four models from the Global Land Data Assimilation System, and the WaterGAP Global Hydrology Model (WGHM)) is evaluated. Secondly, the drought and flood in Southwest China are characterized. The general regression neural network is applied to retrieve the historical long-term variability of TWSA from 1979 to 2016. The total storage deficit index is used to quantify the intensity and magnitude of drought and flood events. Thirdly, the GRACE TWS data accompanied with the soil moisture and surface water storage data from WGHM are used to disaggregate groundwater storage (GWS) component. The GWS variability in the highly and low karstic regions is compared. The component contribution ratio of each water storage component is quantified. The groundwater storage changes during extreme droughts will be analyzed considering the heterogeneous hydrogeology conditions. This thesis represents a holistic evaluation of terrestrial water storage (including groundwater) in Southwest China.