Management Strategy of Groundwater Resources and Recovery of Over-Extraction Drawdown Funnel in Huaibei City, China

Groundwater overexploitation is threatening our ecosystems and even the life of future generations. Once happens, elimination of the bad influence will be a long-term process. It should be a feasible approach to take the environmental recovery as a whole by the way of the groundwater management. A case study of water resources management in Huaibei city, within semiarid region of north Anhui province, China, was illustrated, especially on the issues of groundwater over-extraction drawdown funnel recovery. Taking into account the water demand for satisfying the urban development in the next 15 years, three target years of water resources planning were postulated as the present (2005), the short-term (2010) and the long-term (2020), respectively. Four hydrological years: wet year, mean year, dry year and extremely dry year, were also defined by the rainfall data for many years. A groundwater management model which could deal with twelve possible scenarios (3 target years of water resources planning ×4 hydrological years) was established based on simulation and optimization. The groundwater management model could optimize the strategies of water resources development, integrate various kinds of water sources, e.g. groundwater, surface water and additive water sources, and meet the water demand for the urban development within an area of Huaibei city. Importantly, in accordance with the groundwater management model solutions, the issues of groundwater over-extraction drawdown funnel, which has formed within the Huaibei downtown area for many years and lead to some environmental and social problems, would be solved over the whole planning period.