Evolution mechanism and control of groundwater in the North China Plain

The long-term overexploitation of groundwater in the North China Plain has produced complicated groundwater depression funnels and caused a series of environmental problems. To realize the harmonization between the regional economic development and the groundwater resources and environment, researchers have implemented since 2010 the project "Evolution Mechanism and Management of the Groundwater in North China", which is a National Basic Research Program (973) of China. On the basis of numerous previous studies, the evolution of groundwater flowing field and its response to human activities in the past 50 years were analyzed, and the change of water flowing parameters and the structure of vadose zone were investigated. The evolution of ground depression, the movement of saline water bodies, and the composition of deep groundwater were studied. A high resolution numerical groundwater flow model was built up based on renewed data between 2001 and 2010 and improved groundwater modeling technologies. Based on this model, the authors calculated the up-to-date amount of groundwater resources. The groundwater resources carrying capacities (GRCC) were assessed and the main factors affecting the GRCC were analyzed. The optimizing solutions for the management of the groundwater resources in the North China Plain were put forward and were modeling by the newly-built high resolution groundwater flow model