Groundwater Pumping Raises Sea Levels

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As people pump groundwater for irrigation, drinking water, and industrial uses, the water doesn't just seep back into the ground--it also evaporates or runs off into rivers and canals, eventually emptying into the world's oceans. This water adds up, and a new study calculates that by 2050, groundwater pumping will cause a global sea level rise of about 0.8 millimeters per year.

"Other than ice on land, the excessive groundwater extractions are fast becoming the most important terrestrial water contribution to sea level rise," said Yoshihide Wada of Utrecht University in the Netherlands and lead author of the study. In the coming decades, he noted, groundwater contributions to …