Groundwater Exploitation Management Under Land Subsidence Constraint: Empirical Evidence from the Hangzhou–Jiaxing–Huzhou Plain, China

Land subsidence caused by extensive groundwater pumping has become a factor which cannot be ignored in the sustainable exploitation of groundwater resources. The Hangzhou–Jiaxing–Huzhou Plain is one of the locations with China’s most severe land subsidence problems; the region has experienced dramatic land subsidence since the 1960s. Historical records of groundwater extraction, hydraulic head, and land subsidence show the latter to be the result of continual and excessive extraction of groundwater from deep confined aquifers. This study reconstructs land subsidence using an integrated regional groundwater flow and land subsidence model. The model is calibrated using land subsidence and groundwater level measurements from 1996 to 2007. Simulation results reproduce the cones of depression for groundwater heads and nadirs of land subsidence reasonably well. The calibrated model is used to evaluate the efficacy of land subsidence prevention plans from 2008 to 2010, and to predict future land subsidence over the next decade considering several groundwater exploitation scenarios. The results show the main cause of land subsidence to be inelastic compaction of the aquifer system resulting from continuously declining water levels. The model reveals that while the area of land subsidence will continue to extend, the rate of this extension may be significantly decreased by reduction of groundwater extraction. If the current land subsidence prevention and reclamation plans are continued and surface water diversion projects implemented, though land subsidence cannot be halted, the rate at which it is occurring can be effectively reduced.     

浅析采煤塌陷区生态修复管理机制的完善

采煤塌陷区的生态环境治理是生态环境保护的一项重要内容。当前,采煤塌陷区所在的地方政府已经采取了相关的生态修复措施,并建立了相应的管理机构,有了一定的法制建设进展。但与采煤塌陷区生态修复相关的管理机制尚存在不足,诸如管理主体欠缺、管理体制不顺、法治不健全等问题普遍存在。因此,需要在环境管理转型的要求下进一步完善。     

POTENTIAL BENEFITS AND COSTS OF INGROUND STORAGE OF IMPORTED WATER1

ABSTRACT: In the near future, groundwater storage of imported water may become increasingly important as sites for surface storage are less available. This article explores the potential economic costs and benefits of groundwater storage. The costs include capital outlays, maintenance costs, land costs, legal costs, energy costs, and opportunity costs. The benefits include land cost savings, prevention of subsidence, aquifer protection, and higher economic use of surface lands that might be covered by a reservoir.     

开滦赵各庄煤矿采煤沉陷土地资源影响评价

采煤沉陷已成为煤矿区危害范围最广、影响程度最大、延续时间最长的一种工程地质灾害,在对赵各庄煤矿矿山地质环境调查的基础上,分析采空沉陷区对土地资源影响特征,并预测采空沉陷区土地资源影响和破坏发展趋势,指出了沉陷区土地复垦规划原则,提出了合理的复垦建议。     

Human Freshwater Demand for Economic Activity and Ecosystems in Taiwan

Freshwater is necessary to economic activity, and humans depend on goods and services generated by water-dependent ecosystems. However, national freshwater management usually focuses on direct use of domestic freshwater. With an increasing scarcity of freshwater, attention has turned to two indirect uses of freshwater by humans. The first indirect use is freshwater used by foreign countries when producing products for export. The second use is freshwater required by local ecosystems: human survival and development depend on goods and services generated in these ecosystems. This work adopted Taiwan as a case study. In addition to two widely recognized ecosystem freshwater demands, evapotranspiration and reversed river flow, this study suggests that freshwater is a constituent of some abiotic components, such as groundwater in aquifers, because excessive withdrawal has already caused significant land subsidence in Taiwan. Moreover, the estimated results show that Taiwan’s net imports of freshwater through trade amounts to approximately 25% of its total freshwater use for economic production. Integrating industrial policy, trade policy, and national freshwater management is a useful approach for developing strategies to limit the growing use of freshwater in Taiwan. Policy implications are then developed by further analyzing withdrawal sources of freshwater (domestic and foreign) for supporting economic production in Taiwan and identifying the factors (domestic final demand and export) driving freshwater-intensive products.     

Regulation of the environmental impacts of coal mining in the USA

Decades of environmentally unregulated coal mining in the USA have resulted in thousands of polluted streams, contaminated groundwater aquifers, subsidence effects, scarred hill sides and massive waste dumps. Similar environmental damage due to coal mining has occurred in Eastern Europe. In the USA, to correct the environmental damage due to coal mining, the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act was passed in 1977. This paper examines the provisions of the Act in detail and ends with a warning to the Eastern European countries. 'The lessons to he learned from the US experience may be reduced to one essential observation: unregulated coal mining in a free market economy can cause extremely serious environmental harm with attendant adverse social and economic impacts which cannot be effectively resolved without comprehensive and strict governmental regulation' .     

济南市水资源现状与可持续发展对策

济南市是资源型缺水城市,地表水遭到严重污染,已成为水质型缺水城市,导致地下水超采、地面沉降、泉水停涌等一系列环境、生态、经济问题,水资源已成为制约济南市发展的瓶颈因素.在对济南市水资源现状及相关问题进行详细分析的基础上,提出加强客水资源调用与管理、水资源循环利用、合理制定水价等水资源可持续利用的措施和对策.     

DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR MANAGING GROUND WATER RESOURCES IN THE CHOUSHUI RIVER ALLUVIAL IN TAIWAN1

ABSTRACT: Ground water is a vital water resource in the Choushui River alluvial fan in Taiwan. A significantly increased demand for water, resulting from rapid economic development, has led to large scale ground water extraction. Overdraft of ground water has considerably lowered the ground water level, and caused seawater intrusion, land subsidence, and other environmental damage. Sound ground water management thus is essential. This study presents a decision support system (DSS) for managing ground water resources in the Choushui River alluvial fan. This DSS integrates geographic information, ground water simulation, and expert systems. The geographic information system effectively analyzes and displays the spatially varied data and interfaces with the ground water simulation system to compute the dynamic behavior of ground water flow and solute transport in the aquifer. Meanwhile, a ground water model, MODFLOW‐96, is used to determine the permissible yield in the Choushui River alluvial fan. Additionally, an expert system of DSS employs the determined aquifer permissible yield to assist local government agencies in issuing water rights permits and managing ground water resources in the Choushui River alluvial fan.     

间歇式活性污泥法处理1-4丁二醇废水的研究

用间歇式活性污泥法(SBR法)对高浓度1-4丁二醇废水进行了处理研究。实验测定了污泥沉降性能,测试了最佳曝气时间、最佳pH值范围以及SBR处理系统耐污染的负荷。实验结果表明:SBR法的污泥沉降比为15%～30%,完全符合活性污泥正常运行时的沉降标准。处理污水的最佳曝气时间为5h,最佳pH值范围为7～8。该处理系统耐冲击,能承受较高的污染负荷,对水质的波动有较强的承受能力。利用SBR法可以处理1-4丁二醇、聚丙烯酰胺和顺丁烯二酸酐三套装置排放的混合污水。     

崇明岛地下水资源的利用现状及保护措施

未来地下水资源短缺,特别是由于地面沉降、地表退化、海平面上升等引起的地下水位下降,将对沿海地区的地质环境及人类的生存发展产生极大的影响。通过对崇明地区地下水资源利用现状以及影响地下水位下降的影响因素分析,提出了改善传统的灌溉系统来减少地下水资源的使用、海岸沿线修建人工湖泊防止海水入侵、鼓励农民大面积种植水稻、制定管理措施严格控制地下水的开采总量、进一步加强崇明岛地面沉降动态监测与研究等相应的防范措施。强调控制地下水位的下降,以减轻淡水资源短缺所造成的危害,具有特殊而重要的意义。     

Spatial Prediction of Ground Subsidence Susceptibility Using an Artificial Neural Network

Ground subsidence in abandoned underground coal mine areas can result in loss of life and property. We analyzed ground subsidence susceptibility (GSS) around abandoned coal mines in Jeong-am, Gangwon-do, South Korea, using artificial neural network (ANN) and geographic information system approaches. Spatial data of subsidence area, topography, and geology, as well as various ground-engineering data, were collected and used to create a raster database of relevant factors for a GSS map. Eight major factors causing ground subsidence were extracted from the existing ground subsidence area: slope, depth of coal mine, distance from pit, groundwater depth, rock-mass rating, distance from fault, geology, and land use. Areas of ground subsidence were randomly divided into a training set to analyze GSS using the ANN and a test set to validate the predicted GSS map. Weights of each factor’s relative importance were determined by the back-propagation training algorithms and applied to the input factor. The GSS was then calculated using the weights, and GSS maps were created. The process was repeated ten times to check the stability of analysis model using a different training data set. The map was validated using area-under-the-curve analysis with the ground subsidence areas that had not been used to train the model. The validation showed prediction accuracies between 94.84 and 95.98%, representing overall satisfactory agreement. Among the input factors, “distance from fault” had the highest average weight (i.e., 1.5477), indicating that this factor was most important. The generated maps can be used to estimate hazards to people, property, and existing infrastructure, such as the transportation network, and as part of land-use and infrastructure planning.     

AN ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT OF GROUND WATER RECHARGE IN THE TUCSON BASIN1

ABSTRACT: Bringing water from Colorado River via the Central Arizona Project was perceived as the sole solution for Tucson Basin's water problem. Soon after Central Arizona Project's water arrived in Tucson in 1992, its quality provoked a quarrel over its use for potable purposes. A significant outcome of that quarrel was the enactment of the 1995 Proposition 200. The Proposition 200 precludes the use of Central Arizona Project's water for potable purposes, unless it is treated. Yet, it encourages using it for non‐potable purposes and for replenishing the Tucson aquifer through recharge. This paper examines the economic issues involved in utilizing Central Arizona Project's water for recharge. Four planning scenarios were designed to measure and compare the costs and benefits with and without Central Arizona Project's water recharge. Cost‐benefit analysis was utilized to measure recharge costs and benefits and to derive a rough estimate of cost savings from preventing land subsidence. The results indicate that the institutional requirements can be met with Central Arizona Project's water recharge. The economic benefits from reducing pumping cost and saving groundwater are not economically significant. Yet, when combining the use of Central Arizona Project's water for recharge and non‐potable purposes, it demonstrates positive net economic benefits.     

WATER FOR HOUSTON1

Houston, the Nation's sixth largest city, is taking appropriate steps to assure an adequate water supply for its industrial and population needs for the year 2000. Houston's situation is unusual in that it now relies on groundwater sources for 80 percent of its domestic water supply but must convert this system to depend on surface water for 60 percent of its total supply source. Problems concerning the conversion are not only varied but complex. Surface water is more costly. Reservoirs that meet the plans and standards of state and federal water authorities as well as conveyance and treatment facilities must be developed. In the case of Houston, the total groundwater withdrawal rate must be increased but at the same time shifted from one area to another because of subsidence problems. Solutions to these problems require careful engineering study as well as economic and sociological planning.     

淮北市采煤塌陷区的土地复垦

安徽省淮北市的淮北矿区是我国重要的十大煤炭生产基地之一,现有大小煤矿30余座.长期以来,因采煤而造成的塌陷土地累计达14667hm2,由此引起的地貌变形、房屋倒塌、生态环境恶化等灾害,严重影响了当地工农业生产和人们的生活.因此,加强对采煤塌陷区土地复垦的研究极为重要.在实地考察和有关数据分析的基础上,将淮北矿区因采煤塌陷而被破坏的土地分为四个区,总结出两大土地复垦模式,并对复垦后的土地利用进行适宜性评价.     

Land-cover change in upper Barataria Basin estuary,Louisiana, 1972-1992: increases in Wetland area

The Barataria Basin, Louisiana, USA, is an extensive wetland and coastal estuary system of great economic and intrinsic value. Although high rates of wetland loss along the coastal margin of the Barataria Basin have been well documented, little information exists on whether freshwater wetlands in the upper basin have changed. Our objectives were to quantify land-cover change in the upper basin over 20 years from 1972–1992 and to determine land-cover transition rates among land-cover types. Using 80-m resolution Landsat MSS data from the North American Landscape Characterization (NALC) data archive, we classified images from three time steps (1972, 1985, 1992) into six land-cover types: agriculture, urban, bottomland hardwood forest, swamp forest, freshwater marsh, and open water. Significant changes in land cover occurred within the upper Barataria Basin over the study period. Urban land increased from 8% to 17% of the total upper basin area, primarily due to conversions from agricultural land, and to a lesser degree, bottomland forest. Swamp forest increased from 30% to 41%, associated with conversions from bottomland hardwood forest and freshwater marsh. Overall, bottomland forest decreased 38% and total wetland area increased 21%. Within the upper Barataria, increases in total wetland area may be due to land subsidence. Based on our results, if present trends in the reduction of bottomland forest land cover were to continue, the upper Barataria Basin may have no bottomland hardwood forests left by the year 2025, as it is subjected to multiple stressors both in the higher elevations (from urbanization) and lower elevations (most likely from land subsidence). These results suggest that changes in the upper freshwater portions of coastal estuaries can be large and quite different from patterns observed in the more saline coastal margins.     

RETENTION BASIN FAILURES IN CARBONATE TERRANES1

ABSTRACT Sinkholes and subsidence in areas subject to dewatering of carbonate formations have been documented in several geologic and hydrologic investigations. Excessive ground-water pumpage has been cited as a causative factor in areas of increased sinkhole activity. Subsurface erosion of unconsolidated materials underlain by carbonate rocks is one cause of the collapses. Infiltrating water from retention basins may cause subsurface erosion and eventual failure by collapse of the structure. The resulting ground-water contamination would be great as the pollutants spread throughout the solution-cavity system.     

Impact of 100-Year Human Interventions on the Deltaic Coastal Zone of the Inner Thermaikos Gulf (Greece): A DPSIR Framework Analysis

The Axios River delta and the Inner Thermaikos Gulf coastal zone have experienced a long period of human interventions during the past 100 years. A post-evaluation of long run coastal zone changes under the Drivers-Pressures-State-Impacts-Response (DPSIR) conceptual framework is presented. The DPSIR approach is then used to project out into possible futures in order to connect with policy and management options proposed for the improvement of the current conditions and the achievement of sustainable development, in the coastal zone. Socio-economic driving forces with their origins in the end of the 19^th century have generated numerous pressures in the coastal environment that changed the state of the environment. In the first part of the last century, there was no coupling between change of state and policy. Due to increasing environmental awareness, a coupling became more apparent over the last thirty years. Human interventions include river route realignment, extensive drainage of the plains, irrigation network, roads and dam constructions. The consequences were positive for the economic development of the area, human health, and navigation for the port of Thessaloniki. In contrast, the manipulation and over-use of natural resources has led to a reduction of wetlands, biodiversity loss, stress on freshwater supplies, and subsidence of coastal areas, aquifer salinization, and rapid coastal erosion. Three plausible future scenarios are utilised in order to investigate the implications of this environmental change process and possible socio-economic consequences.     

AN ENGINEERING ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF A PROGRAM FOR ARTIFICIAL GROUNDWATER RECHARGE1

This study describes and demonstrates two alternate methods for evaluating the relative costs and benefits of artificial groundwater recharge using percolation ponds. The first analysis considers the benefits to be the reduction of pumping lifts and land subsidence; the second considers benefits as the alternative costs of a comparable surface delivery system. Example computations are carried out for an existing artificial recharge program in Santa Clara Valley in California. A computer groundwater model is used to estimate both the average long term and the drought period effects of artificial recharge in the study area. For the example problem, the benefits of reduced average annual pumping lifts and reduced incremental subsidence are greater than the total costs of continuing the existing artificial recharge program. Benefits for reduced subsidence are strongly dependent on initial aquifer conditions. The second analysis compares the costs of continuing the artificial recharge program with the costs of a surface system which would achieve the same hydraulic effects. Results indicate that the costs of artificial recharge are considerably smaller than the alternative costs of an equivalent surface system. In evaluating a particular program, consideration should also be given to uncertainties in future supplies and demands for water as well as to the probability of extreme events such as droughts.     

The Effect of Channelization on Floodplain Sediment Deposition and Subsidence Along the Pocomoke River,Maryland1

Kroes, Daniel E. and Cliff R. Hupp, 2010. The Effect of Channelization on Floodplain Sediment Deposition and Subsidence Along the Pocomoke River, Maryland. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 46(4): 686-699. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2010.00440.x Abstract: The nontidal Pocomoke River was intensively ditched and channelized by the mid-1900s. In response to channelization; channel incision, head-cut erosion, and spoil bank perforation have occurred in this previously nonalluvial system. Six sites were selected for study of floodplain sediment dynamics in relation to channel condition. Short- and long-term sediment deposition/subsidence rates and composition were determined. Short-term rates (four years) ranged from 0.6 to 3.6 mm/year. Long-term rates (15-100+ years) ranged from −11.9 to 1.7 mm/year. ¹³⁷Cs rates (43 years) indicate rates of 0.24 to 7.4 mm/year depending on channel condition. Channelization has limited contact between streamflow and the floodplain, resulting in little or no sediment retention in channelized reaches. Along unchannelized reaches, extended contact and depth of river water on the floodplain resulted in high deposition rates. Drainage of floodplains exposed organic sediments to oxygen resulting in subsidence and releasing stored carbon. Channelization increased sediment deposition in downstream reaches relative to the presettlement system. The sediment storage function of this river has been dramatically altered by channelization. Results indicate that perforation of spoil banks along channelized reaches may help to alleviate some of these issues.     

新型除磷混凝剂的研制与应用＊

实验以处理金属表面所产生的磷化废水为研究对象,系统地分析了在新型混凝剂的使用过程中,pH值、温度、石灰投入量、沉降时间、助剂A等因素对脱磷效果的影响。结果表明,含磷量为18mg/L、COD为300mg/L、SS为150mg/L、pH值为5.7～6.5的废水,石灰投入量为300mg/L、沉降时间为10min左右、温度为25℃、pH值调节至9.0、加入5mL助剂A处理后,废水中磷含量为0.25～0.35mg/L、COD为80mg/L、SS为60mg/L,满足《污水综合排放标准》(GB8978—1996)中的一级标准。