North China Groundwater Management Strategy
Abstract
As part of a World Bank and AusAid funded project to develop a master plan for water management for North China, a Groundwater Management Strategy for the North China Plain has been formulated. Major groundwater development in the North China Plain, which commenced in the 1960s, has been a key factor in the huge economic growth of China and the achievement of self sufficiency in food production. This has however produced major and continuing groundwater level decline and many associated problems: hundreds of thousands of dry wells, sea water intrusion, land subsidence over vast areas and groundwater salinisation. Groundwater levels in the shallow unconfined aquifers have fallen from 10m up to 50m, at an average rate of 0.5m/year. In the deep confined aquifers levels have commonly fallen 30m and up to 90m, at an average rate of 3 to 5m/year. This is a potentially disastrous problem, as at the current rate of extraction the groundwater resource will only last for several decades more. A groundwater management strategy has been developed to address this major problem. The strategy has many components, including the defining of groundwater management areas and associated target yields ("sustainable" yields), an improved licensing system, institutional reforms, programs to address groundwater pollution, increased artificial recharge, price increase and community education.
Author
Dr Richard Evans
Sinclair Knight Merz