The Effectiveness of the South‐to‐North Water Diversion Middle Route Project on Water Delivery and Groundwater Recovery in North China Plain

Abstract

The South-to-North Water Diversion Middle Route Project (MRP), which started its operation in December 2014, was designed to transfer water from Danjiangkou Reservoir (DR) in Hanjiang River Basin to North China Plain (NCP) to alleviate water shortage and long-term groundwater depletion in the water-receiving region. This study investigates the effectiveness of actual MRP operation during 2015-2018 using the observed water budget data collected from DR and the groundwater level data from 559 monitoring wells. Assuming that MRP was in operation during 2005-2014, ensemble water diversion simulations were performed to study the sensitivity of MRP effectiveness to two important factors: the downstream water demand of DR (D wd) and the ratio (I r) of water diversion volume (Q d) replacing groundwater pumping in NCP. Even though the observed and simulated mean annual Q d during 2015-2018 (i.e., 4.3 and 7.0 km 3 /year, respectively) failed to meet the original water delivery target of 9.5 km 3 /year due to its short operation and the coincidence with a dry cycle, MRP is effective in groundwater recovery as an increasing trend (+0.3 km 3 /year) in groundwater storage (GWS) was observed in NCP during 2015-2018. MRP's effectiveness is sensitive to D wd and I r. D wd should not exceed 23.0 km 3 /year to guarantee Q d reaching the original target, and I r should not be less than 33% to guarantee GWS recovery. Those findings suggest that a reasonable decrease of D wd and an increase of I r are the recommended pathway to ensure the effectiveness of MRP in meeting both water delivery and groundwater recovery targets.

Improving the Resolution and Accuracy of Groundwater Level Anomalies Using the Machine Learning-Based Fusion Model in the North China Plain

“…For example, Seyoum et al [42] designed a two-layer boosted regression trees (BRT) model by utilizing GRACE data and hydrological variables in a glacial aquifer system of the United States, which can predict groundwater level anomalies (GWLA) with a high spatial resolution. The North China Plain (NCP), which is the political, economic, and cultural center of China [43], has been suffering from water shortage and over-exploitation of groundwater for a long period [44][45][46]. Some downscaling researches have been conducted in the area, aiming to provide high-resolution water storage estimates [33,37,47].…”

“…The North China Plain (NCP), which is the political, economic, and cultural center of China [ 43 ], has been suffering from water shortage and over-exploitation of groundwater for a long period [ 44 , 45 , 46 ]. Some downscaling researches have been conducted in the area, aiming to provide high-resolution water storage estimates [ 33 , 37 , 47 ].…”

Optimization of Groundwater Exploitation in an Irrigation Area in the Arid Upper Peacock River, NW China: Implications for Sustainable Agriculture and Ecology

“…Groundwater is the primary water resources for domestic, industrial, and agricultural use in many arid and semi-arid regions [1][2][3]. In recent years, groundwater shortage has drawn much concern in these regions under the stress of climate change and anthropogenic activities [4][5][6][7][8][9], such as the large aquifers in Eastern and Northern Africa, the California's Central Valley, and Southern Plains in North America, south-eastern Spain, North China Plain, and Middle East [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. Strategies such as introducing substitute water, artificial recharge, water saving and reuse, and groundwater management are applied in order to ensure the sustainable use of groundwater [18][19][20][21][22].…”

Study on hydrogeochemical connection and water quality assessment of subsidence lake and shallow groundwater in Luling coal-mining area of the Huaibei coalfield, Eastern China

“…A large number of coal mining has brought a series of ecological and environmental problems (Yang et al 2018), among which ground subsidence is one of the most serious problems. In coal mining areas, the mining of underground coal mines caused the overlying strata of coal seams to move downward and forms a subsidence basin, commonly known as subsidence area (Zhang et al 2020). The large-scale collapse caused by mining activities had created large-scale subsidence lake.…”