Using Satellite‐Based Vegetation Cover as Indicator of Groundwater Storage in Natural Vegetation Areas

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is widely used as an efficient indicator of vegetation cover. Here we assess the possibility of using NDVI as an indicator of groundwater storage. We used groundwater level (GWL) obtained from in situ groundwater observation wells (n > 15,000) in India in 2005–2013. Good correlation (r > 0.6) is observed between NDVI and GWL in natural vegetation‐covered areas, that is, forest lands, shrubs, and grasslands. We apply artificial neural network and support vector machine approaches to investigate the relationship between GWL and NDVI using both of the parameters as input. Artificial neural network‐ and support vector machine‐simulated GWL matches very well with observed GWL, particularly in naturally vegetated areas. Thus, we interpret that NDVI may be used as a suitable indicator of groundwater storage conditions in certain areas where the water table is shallow and the vegetation is natural and where in situ groundwater observations are not available. Plain Language Summary Long‐term groundwater resources monitoring is costly at large scales. Satellite‐based estimations based on Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellite observations can provide groundwater resource information at coarse spatial and temporal resolution. In this study, we used widely available, high‐resolution vegetation index data and investigated the possibility of using it as a proxy of groundwater storage. Artificial intelligence‐based approaches that incorporates vegetation index data show good performance in estimating groundwater levels. The results are particularly encouraging in natural vegetation covered areas. Key Points Widely available, satellite‐based vegetation index may be used as a suitable indicator of groundwater storage Artificial intelligence estimates show good performance of vegetation index on predicting future groundwater levels Vegetation index can be used as an indicator of groundwater storage particularly at natural vegetation‐covered areas