Land subsidence that had bad influences on coastal alluvial plains was mainly caused by lowering of piezometric heads of groundwater due to the withdrawal from aquifers. The regulations on groundwater use have been put into effect by public agencies. As a result of these regulations, lowered groundwater heads were recovered and subsidence has been recently retarded. These days, a new type of groundwater management which has the estimation of desirable groundwater heads without land subsidence and of optimal withdrawals with effective use of groundwater is necessary.
In this paper, the new type of groundwater management is discussed. And in the case of the Nobi Plain, the estimating method of groundwater heads and optimal distribution of withdrawals for the new type of groundwater management are presented. That method uses one-dimensional F. E. M. for subsidence analysis and three-dimensional F. E. M. for groundwater flow analysis. Key words: groundwater withdrawal, groundwater management, desirable groundwater heads, land subsidence