Overview

• GRACE and GRACE-FO satellite data from 2002 through 2024 show terrestrial water storage declines accelerated around 2014 and now expand by an area twice the size of California each year.
• Nearly six billion people in 101 countries face net freshwater loss driven chiefly by overpumping of groundwater, which accounts for 68 percent of total depletion at populated latitudes.
• Moisture lost through drought and runoff from pumped aquifers now exceeds glacier and ice sheet melt as the largest contributor of water to the oceans.
• Four continental-scale mega-drying regions have formed across the Northern Hemisphere, spanning the Middle East–North Africa, Pan-Eurasia, North America–Central America and Northern Russia–Arctic zones.
• Researchers warn that deep-aquifer depletion is irreversible on human timescales and urge immediate global groundwater management policies to protect water security and curb sea level rise.