Freshwater availability is changing worldwide. Here we quantify 34 trends in terrestrial water storage observed by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites during 2002–2016 and categorize their drivers as natural interannual variability, unsustainable groundwater consumption, climate change or combinations thereof. Several of these trends had been lacking thorough investigation and attribution, including massive changes in northwestern China and the Okavango Delta. Others are consistent with climate model predictions.

The hydrology of the Ganga River is mainly characterized by high monsoon rainfall and seasonal variability in discharge flow. The study is focuses on both the up and down-streams of Farakka barrage. It has been executed with the help of Modified Normalized Difference Water Index using Landsat satellite images (2014), satellite based discharge data and Gumbel’s flood frequency analysis. The study aims to analyse the impacts of seasonality, floods and the construction of Farakka barrage on hydrology of the Ganga River.