Water Loss in Endorheic Basins

Without water, we can't survive. Water is necessary for plants but only a small amount of water taken up by the roots is used for growth and metabolism. Water loss control includes utility efforts to manage leakage to economically low levels, and reducing metering and billing errors such that reliable measures of customer consumption are attained and sufficient revenue is garnered by the water utility.

As a result of the study, ‘Recent Global Decline in Endorheic Basin Water Storage,’ conducted out by a team of scientists from six countries and appears in the current issue of Nature Geoscience, reveals that water storage declines in global landlocked basins has aggravated local water stress and caused potential sea level rise. Not only this but the warming climate and intensified human activities along with recent water storage in global landlocked basins have undergone a widespread decline. Jida Wang, a Kansas State University geographer and the study's lead author, stated that water resources are extremely limited in the continental hinterlands where streamflow does not reach the ocean. These regions are called endorheic basins. Wang along with his team used gravity observations from NASA/German Aerospace Centre’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), satellites and quantified a net water loss in global endorheic basins of approximately 100 billion tons of water per year since the start of the current millennium. This is a water mass equivalent to five Great Salt Lakes or three Lake Meads is gone every year from the arid endorheic regions. However, it is unbelievable to know that this amount of endorheic water loss is double the rate of concurrent water changes across the remaining landmass except Greenland and Antarctica. According to researchers, endorheic water loss has dual consequences like water stress in the arid endorheic regions, global environmental concern like sea level rise. Sea level mainly happens due to thermal expansion of sea water as a result of increased global temperature, and additional water mass to the ocean. Wang and team with the help of multi-mission satellite observations and hydrological model attributed this global endorheic water loss to comparable contributions from the surface like lakes, reservoirs and glaciers as well as soil moisture and aquifers. Wang also stated that the water storage in the endorheic system affect the water storage trend in the entire land surface and affect longer-term climate conditions and human water management. He also mentioned water loss in the endorheic affect regional water sustainability and global sea level rise. These messages not only highlight the underrated importance of endorheic basins in the water cycle but also the need for an improved understanding of water storage changes in the global hinterland.

By: Anuja Arora

Content: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181130153841.htm