A new study by NASA has revealed that human impact is responsible for changes in freshwater availability all across the globe. The study suggested that while the wetlands are getting more wet, on the other hand, dry regions are getting drier due to adverse human water management, weather changes, and natural cycles.
During the research, a team of geologists at NASA led by Matt Rodell analyzed fourteen years of data and trekked across the globe to find trends in 34 regions. He stated that for the first time researchers have witnessed the changes in the freshwater availability on planet earth.
"What we are witnessing is major hydrologic change. We see a distinctive pattern of the wetland areas of the world getting wetter – those are the high latitudes and the tropics – and the dry areas in between getting dryer. Embedded within the dry areas we see multiple hotspots resulting from groundwater depletion," said Jay Famiglietti, the co-author of the study and a researcher at the NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in a statement.
Experts define freshwater as water found in lakes, rivers, soil, snow, groundwater and ice. Experts argued that shifting of availability of freshwater from, ice is a major concern, as the loss of ice sheets from both the North and South poles has implications of major sea level rise.
Famiglietti revealed that the melting of ice in the North and South poles are due to climate change. However, he suggested more work and research, that will help to identify the reason behind such changes in freshwater availability.
"The pattern of wet-getting-wetter, dry-getting-drier during the rest of the 21st century is predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change models, but we'll need a much longer dataset to be able to definitively say whether climate change is responsible for the emergence of any similar pattern in the GRACE data," added Jau Famiglietti.
Earlier, several reports have surfaced online stating that the water level in seas are rising dramatically, and if humans failed to find an effective combating method, it will result in the drowning of many cities in the next century.
