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Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Keywords

groundwater level rebound, South to North Water Diversion Project, North China Plain, geological and engineering risks, degradation risks of soil and groundwater environment

Abstract

In recent years, following the implementation of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project and comprehensive control of groundwater over-exploitation, coupled with natural factors such as more frequent and intensified extreme rainstorms, the groundwater level at large extent of the North China Plain has stopped declining and even started rising, with gradual recovery of groundwater storage. Nevertheless, the rapid rise in groundwater levels has disrupted the long-standing hydrological-geological-ecological balance shaped by prolonged over-extraction, triggering multiple secondary risks. The rebounding water level markedly exacerbates potential seismic liquefaction hazards at construction sites and raises risks of water seepage, anti-float failure, and structural damage for infrastructures including subways, underground spaces, comprehensive utility tunnels, and the main channel of the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, driving up costs for infrastructure construction, operation, and maintenance, and triggering potential geo-hazards. In addition, nitrate and other contaminants accumulated over years within the thick vadose zone across extensive areas get mobilized and increase the risk of groundwater contamination. The safety of drinking and irrigation water, as well as secondary soil salinization, are also subject to rapid groundwater level rebound. This study systematically sorts out the risks stemming from rising groundwater levels covering engineering safety, geological disasters, groundwater pollution, and ecological degradation, and proposes 5 aspects of countermeasures: enhancing mechanism research, improving monitoring and early warning systems, optimizing engineering protection, advancing intelligent water resource regulation, and implementing zoned management and control, so as to support decision-making for coordinated remediation of groundwater systems and secondary risk governance in the North China Plain. The findings and recommendations of this study will be beneficial to promoting the national Strategy for the Coordinated Development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region.

First page

1710

Last Page

1716

Language

Chinese

Publisher

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences

References

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