Open Access: Groundwater overexploitation in the North China Plain: A path to sustainability
Aquanty would like to congratulate our friends at the ETH Zurich Institute of Environmental Engineering for the publication of their new open access book:
Groundwater overexploitation in the North China Plain: A path to sustainability
“The depletion of aquifers by excessive pumping is one of the prominent global sustainability issues in the field of water resources. It is mainly caused by the water needs of irrigated agriculture. The North China Plain is a global hotspot of groundwater overexploitation. Since the 1980s, groundwater levels dropped by about 1 m/year mainly due to the intensification of agricultural production by a double cropping system of winter wheat and summer maize. The consequences of declining groundwater levels include the drying up of streams and wetlands, soil subsidence, seawater intrusion at the coast and rising cost of pumping. The depletion of storage makes the production system more vulnerable with respect to climatic extremes associated with climate change. Sustainable management of aquifers keeps groundwater levels between an upper and a lower red line. While the upper red line is designed to prevent soli salinization, the lower red line is motivated by ecological requirements, water quality constraints or infrastructural concerns. Global water balances are useful in identifying the scope of the problem and the size of efforts required to restore a sustainable pumping regime. Adequate local action needs a local analysis. Guantao County is selected for such a local analysis in the North China Plain.”
W. Kinzelbach et al., Groundwater Overexploitation in the North China Plain: A path to Sustainability,