RECENT AND FUTURE STATE OF GROUNDWATER RESOURCES IN HEBEI PLAIN, CHINA

Abstract

The Hebei plain belongs to semi-arid climatic region in China. In this region in the future the use of the land and the demand for the groundwater will keep increasing. Water resource is a key for industrial development of the region in the 21st century. In this paper we tried an accurate estimate of recent state of groundwater resources in the plain through the detailed analysis of movement of groundwater. According to the water balance calculation, the shallow groundwater recharge was mostly from infiltration of meteoric water and estimated to be 101.14× 10⁸m³/y and the discharge was 105.2× 10⁸m³/y due mostly to pumping up, so the decreasing amount of storage was estimated to be 3.88× 10⁸m³/y resulting in lowering of groundwater level. A mathematical model of groundwater flows of the unconfined and confined aquifers was introduced to predict the future groundwater state for given groundwater usage scenarios. According to the prediction, both unconfined and confined aquifers in the plain will be confronted with very serious water shortage problems within several decades.