Combined with Hong Kong University and Swedish researchers, Wang Hansheng, a researcher at the Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics (IGG), Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS), and his team found for the first time that the groundwater storage in the Tibetan Plateau and adjacent areas was increasing at a speed of 18.6±4.8 billion cubic meters a year, which was equivalent to about half of the Three Gorges Reservoir’ storage at 175 meters water level. Related paper was published in the international famous journal(Earth and Planetary Science Letters) and the title was “Groundwater storage changes in the Tibetan Plateau and adjacent areas revealed from GRACE satellite gravity data”.

Understanding changes of groundwater storage in the Tibetan Plateau and adjacent areas is not only of significant value to plateau ecological restoration, agriculture-stock development, geological disaster prevention and control, but also to hydrologic cycle and global climate change research. But, because of the available water level data in water wells was very few in the Tibetan Plateau, researchers knew little about groundwater status for a long time. So, this discovery is exciting and significant.