Impact of meteorological conditions on water resources in the Upper East Region of Ghana using remotely-sensed and modelled hydrological data

Kelly, C. I.; Hancock, C. M.; Grebby, S.; Marsh, S.; Ferreira, V. G.; Hamm, N. A.S.

Abstract

Study region: The Upper East Region, Ghana, West Africa, lies within the Volta Basin, floods annually, and contributes substantially to Ghana's food production. Study focus: We assessed precipitation (P), evapotranspiration (ET), and total water storage anomalies from GRACE (TWSA) and GLDAS-Noah (TWCA) to study the influence of the UER's climate on water availability between 2002 and 2017. We analysed (1) the relative uncertainties of the data sets using the triple-cornered hat method, (2) the terrestrial water budget to validate TWSA/TWCA and (3) cross- and multi-correlation analyses to study the relationship between water storage (or availability) and meteorological variables. New hydrological insights: We found strong correlations between the different P products (r > 0.96), between the different GRACE products (r > 0.95), but not between the different ET products. The hybrid P, TWSA from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and ET from ERA-5 had the smallest relative uncertainties. TWSA increased by 9.8 ± 0.8 mm yr−1 while TWCA decreased. P and ET showed no evidence of a trend and were similarly influenced by the other meteorological variables. However, 93 of 183 months had water surplus and mean net P was positive – indicating the UER received more water than it lost. These agree with the increasing TWSA trend. The water budget validation also confirmed that GRACE can be used for water management; GLDAS-Noah underestimates storage in the UER.

Citation

Kelly, C. I., Hancock, C. M., Grebby, S., Marsh, S., Ferreira, V. G., & Hamm, N. A. (2022). Impact of meteorological conditions on water resources in the Upper East Region of Ghana using remotely-sensed and modelled hydrological data. Journal of Hydrology Regional Studies, 42, Article 101124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2022.101124

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 27, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Jun 2, 2022
• Publication Date: Aug 1, 2022
• Deposit Date: Jun 6, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 6, 2022
• Journal: Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies
• Print ISSN: 2214-5818
• Electronic ISSN: 2214-5818
• Publisher: Elsevier BV
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 42
• Article Number: 101124
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2022.101124
• Keywords: Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous); Water Science and Technology
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/8391518
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214581822001379