HR: 08:45h
AN: H11G-04    [Abstracts]
TI: Sustainable Management of Groundwater Resources: A Case Study from the North China Plain
AU: * Liu, J
EM: liu037@bama.ua.edu
AF: Department of Geological Sciences, University of Alabama, 202 Bevill Building, Tuscaloosa, AL. 35487
AU: Zheng, C
H11G-04 AF: Department of Geological Sciences, University of Alabama, 202 Bevill Building, Tuscaloosa, AL. 35487
AU: Zheng, L
H11G-04 AF: Center for Agriculture Resources Research, IGDB,Chinese Academy of Sciences, 286 Huaizhong Road, Shijiazhuang, 050021 China
AU: Wu, J
H11G-04 AF: Department of Earth Sciences, Nanjing University, 22 Hankou Road, Nanjing, 210093 China
AU: Lei, Y
H11G-04 AF: Center for Agriculture Resources Research, IGDB,Chinese Academy of Sciences, 286 Huaizhong Road, Shijiazhuang, 050021 China
AB: With the dramatic increase of population and rapid growth of municipal and industrial water demands, global water shortage is becoming more and more acute. One of the most striking examples for groundwater depletion is the North China Plain (NCP). As the most important center of agricultural production and home to more than 200 million people in China, NCP is experiencing a rapid depletion of its groundwater resources. Groundwater levels in many parts of NCP are currently declining at a rate of 1 m/year or even more due to excessive pumping. A numerical groundwater flow model was developed in this study for the Shijiazhuang region, a typical part of NCP where groundwater is the main water supply source for local agriculture irrigation and municipal and industrial water needs. The model indicated unsustainable groundwater utilization as the pumping exceeds recharge by a large amount. In this study, management optimization modeling was conducted to quantify and improve the sustainability of groundwater utilization in the study area. Based on the calibrated flow model, an optimization formulation was first set up to identify the optimal pumping well locations and rates that lead to the maximum total yield subject to a series of water level constraints. A second optimization formulation was then considered to minimize the total management costs required to meet the projected total water demands, also subject to the same set of water level constraints. The optimization models in this study provide a useful tool for developing cost-effective strategies for sustainable management of groundwater resources on the NCP. The findings from this study are of potentially wide interest to other parts of the world under similar hydrogeological and economic conditions.
DE: 1829 Groundwater hydrology
DE: 1846 Model calibration (3333)
DE: 1847 Modeling
DE: 1880 Water management (6334)
DE: 1884 Water supply
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005