Mitigation of Land Subsidence Due to Groundwater Extraction in Queretaro, Mexico

In 2011, the water source for the City of Queretaro was drastically changed to reduce groundwater depletion and compaction, and to mitigate ground fracturing issues and damages to infrastructure. Groundwater extraction was reduced by almost half and the missing portion was compensated by water imports. Here we use four InSAR ground deformation time-series covering 16 years (2004–2020) to observe if this change efficiently reduced subsidence and ground fracturing. We found that subsidence rates have greatly decreased since 2011 as a result of the change in groundwater management. We note, however, that subsidence still occurs in Queretaro.