2015 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 7-14
Groundwater resources at Dalad, Inner Mongolia were investigated by groundwater metering in 2013 as supplementary investigation during 2002-2006. Since Dalad is located in the middle reach area of the Yellow River basin and classified as arid or semi-arid area with less than 360mm precipitation and more than 2,200mm potential evaporation, the river water is not sufficiently supplied to the area and therefore, irrigation and industrial waters inevitably depend on groundwater resources. As a result of the investigation, groundwater levels at almost of all the observation wells have descended remarkably since 2005 and especially the decreases in the southern part of the objective area are severe by a range of 0.8-5.4m. The groundwater amount in the southern part in 2013 is roughly estimated to be 2.91×107m3, which proves a distinct downward trend. According to the autoregressive-like forecasts, including the Holt-Winters method, the unconfined groundwater in the southern part would be unavailable in the middle of 2030’s. The groundwater amount of the objective area is also decreasing severely and the increase in irrigation and industrial waters must be its potential reasons, except the decrease in the precipitation during 2005-2013. The change of the groundwater usage and flows might decrease the discharge of the Yellow River through the groundwater seepage and it is not only a water resources problem in this area, but also in the basin scale. Therefore, the groundwater management in this area is a pressing issue and should be done by local government or some water-utilization association against both irrigation water and industry water users. The water resources are inherently including uncertainty, so continuing observation is essential to maintain the water resources at Dalad.
