IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v11y2020i1d10.1038_s41467-020-17038-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Groundwater level observations in 250,000 coastal US wells reveal scope of potential seawater intrusion

Author

Listed:
  • Scott Jasechko

    (University of California at Santa Barbara)

  • Debra Perrone

    (University of California at Santa Barbara)

  • Hansjörg Seybold

    (ETH Zürich)

  • Ying Fan

    (Rutgers University)

  • James W. Kirchner

    (ETH Zürich
    Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL
    University of California)

Abstract

Seawater intrusion into coastal aquifers can increase groundwater salinity beyond potable levels, endangering access to freshwater for millions of people. Seawater intrusion is particularly likely where water tables lie below sea level, but can also arise from groundwater pumping in some coastal aquifers with water tables above sea level. Nevertheless, no nation-wide, observation-based assessment of the scope of potential seawater intrusion exists. Here we compile and analyze ~250,000 coastal groundwater-level observations made since the year 2000 in the contiguous United States. We show that the majority of observed groundwater levels lie below sea level along more than 15% of the contiguous coastline. We conclude that landward hydraulic gradients characterize a substantial fraction of the East Coast (>18%) and Gulf Coast (>17%), and also parts of the West Coast where groundwater pumping is high. Sea level rise, coastal land subsidence, and increasing water demands will exacerbate the threat of seawater intrusion.

Suggested Citation

  • Scott Jasechko & Debra Perrone & Hansjörg Seybold & Ying Fan & James W. Kirchner, 2020. "Groundwater level observations in 250,000 coastal US wells reveal scope of potential seawater intrusion," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-17038-2
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17038-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17038-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-020-17038-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rencai Dong & Yue Cai & Xueye Chen & Cunjin Wang & Anxin Lian, 2024. "Ecological Risk Assessment of Saltwater Intrusion and Urban Ecosystem Management in Shenzhen City," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-16, August.
    2. Jina Yin & Frank T.-C. Tsai & Chunhui Lu, 2022. "Bi-objective Extraction-injection Optimization Modeling for Saltwater Intrusion Control Considering Surrogate Model Uncertainty," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 36(15), pages 6017-6042, December.
    3. Merhawi GebreEgziabher & Scott Jasechko & Debra Perrone, 2022. "Widespread and increased drilling of wells into fossil aquifers in the USA," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Chong Sheng & Jiu Jimmy Jiao & Xin Luo & Jinchao Zuo & Lei Jia & Jinghe Cao, 2023. "Offshore freshened groundwater in the Pearl River estuary and shelf as a significant water resource," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-17038-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.