This study explores the capability of Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) to detect heterogeneous groundwater storage (GWS) variations in two subregions of the North China Plain: the Piedmont Plain (PP, ~54,000 km², mainly exploiting shallow groundwater) and East Central Plain (ECP, ~86,000 km², mainly exploiting deep groundwater). Results show that the GWS anomalies estimated from GRACE data (2003–2013) agree well with those estimated from in situ observations (2005–2010) for both PP (R² = 0.91) and ECP (R² = 0.75). The shallow GWS (2003–2013) in PP declines faster (−46.5 ± 6.8 mm/yr) than the deep GWS in ECP (−16.9 ± 1.9 mm/yr). However, the shallow GWS in PP recovered more quickly especially during the 2008–2011 drought period. Despite its lower magnitude, the GRACE‐derived GWS depletion in ECP reveals the overexploitation of deep GWS. This study demonstrated that the heterogeneous GWS variations can potentially be detected by GRACE at the subregional scale smaller than the typical GRACE footprint (200,000 km²).

Beijing is one of the most water-stressed cities in the world. Due to over-exploitation of groundwater, the Beijing region has been suffering from land subsidence since 1935. In this study, the Small Baseline InSAR technique has been employed to process Envisat ASAR images acquired between 2003 and 2010 and TerraSAR-X stripmap images collected from 2010 to 2011 to investigate land subsidence in the Beijing region. The maximum subsidence is seen in the eastern part of Beijing with a rate greater than 100 mm/year. Comparisons between InSAR and GPS derived subsidence rates show an RMS difference of 2.94 mm/year with a mean of 2.41 ± 1.84 mm/year. In addition, a high correlation was observed between InSAR subsidence rate maps derived from two different datasets (i.e., Envisat and TerraSAR-X). These demonstrate once again that InSAR is a powerful tool for monitoring land subsidence. InSAR derived subsidence rate maps have allowed for a comprehensive spatio-temporal analysis to identify the main triggering factors of land subsidence. Some interesting relationships in terms of land subsidence were found with groundwater level, active faults, accumulated soft soil thickness and different aquifer types. Furthermore, a relationship with the distances to pumping wells was also recognized in this work.