A critical review on groundwater level depletion monitoring based on GIS and data-driven models: Global perspectives and future challenges

The present study aims to thoroughly review GWL depletion monitoring studies completed between 2000 and 2023 based on data-driven models and GIS approaches from a global perspective. The review summarizes the details of the reviewed papers, including location, period, time scale, key objective, input parameter, applied model, performance metrics, research gaps, limitations, and depletion rate. The mean rate of GWL depletion varied worldwide from 2.9 ± 1.56 to 1100 ± 33.76 mm/yr using data-driven models and from 7.6 ± 2.98 to 2046 ± 45.27 mm/yr using GIS-based approaches. This study assesses the strength of relationships between various keywords and analyzed co-author networks using the Vos-viewer. It proposes a groundwater development strategy based on the evaluated papers to provide a long-term solution to the water scarcity problem. Overall, this review highlights the existing research gaps and suggests potential future research paths to boost the associated new knowledge and increase the accuracy of the GWL depletion monitoring approaches.