GROW: A Global Time Series Dataset for Groundwater Studies within the Earth System

Annemarie Bäthge , Claudia Ruz-Vargas, Gunnar Lischeid, Raoul Collenteur, Mark Olaf Cuthbert , Jan Fleckenstein, Martina Flörke, Inge de Graaf, Sebastian Gnann, Andreas Hartmann, Xander Huggins , Nils Moosdorf, Yoshihide Wada, Thorsten Wagener, Robert Reinecke

Groundwater is a central component of the Earth system. However, our understanding of how it is dynamically interlinked with the atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, biosphere, geosphere, and anthroposphere remains limited. In the pursuit of understanding groundwater dynamics across diverse global settings, we present GROW (global integrated GROundWater package). This analysis-ready, quality-controlled dataset combines depth to groundwater and level time series from around the world with associated Earth system variables. The dataset contains more than 180,000 time series from 41 countries, with either daily, monthly, or yearly temporal resolution, accompanied by 35 time series or attributes of meteorological, hydrological, geophysical, vegetation, and anthropogenic variables (e.g., precipitation, drainage density, aquifer type, NDVI, land use). 33 data flags regarding well features (e.g., location coordinates and country), as well as time series characteristics (e.g., gap fraction or length), facilitate quick data filtering. GROW provides a foundation for understanding large-scale groundwater processes in space and time, as well as for calibrating and evaluating models that simulate groundwater dynamics within the Earth system.