Land subsidence and uplift due to long-term groundwater extraction and artificial recharge in Shanghai, China

Increasing artificial water recharge and restriction on groundwater pumpage have caused land displacements in Shanghai (China) to shift from subsidence to uplift. On the basis of field and laboratory data, the characteristics and mechanism of land subsidence and uplift are analyzed and discussed. Under the condition of long-term groundwater extraction, the deformation of aquifer and aquitard units consists of elastic, plastic, visco-elastic, and visco-plastic components. The recoverable elastic and visco-elastic deformation is only a small portion of the total deformation for both aquitard and aquifer units, especially when the groundwater level in the units is lower than the historically lowest values. When the groundwater level in aquifer and aquitard units rises, whether their expansion occurs immediately or not, depends on the changing modes of groundwater level they have experienced. Even aquifer units do not always rebound closely following the rise of groundwater level in them. The lagging of the occurrence of arrested land subsidence and uplift, clearly behind the rise of groundwater level in aquifer units, can be attributed to the visco-plastic deformation of all units and the consolidation deformation of aquitard units. Artificial recharge and limitation of pumpage are efficient measures for controlling land subsidence, but earlier actions are necessary to keep groundwater levels in all aquifer units above their historically lowest values all the time, if a more effective outcome is expected.