Sustainable Utilization of Karst Groundwater in Feicheng Basin, Shandong Province, China

Feicheng Basin is an important energy base in Shandong Province, North China. The basin is underlain by the Ordovician Limestone, in which the groundwater has been used for agricultural and industrial purposes for many years. Each individual water user controls the current exploitation of the karst water. Agricultural irrigation uses significantly more water in dry seasons, which often results in water shortage for industries. The dewatering activities in the coalmines within the basin discharge approximately 35 million m³ of water annually into local rivers. As a result of the current practice, the regional groundwater level has dropped more than 30 m over the recent 20 years. The groundwater is overdrawn in approximately 300 km², which has restrained the development of local economy. A numerical model with distributed parameters is developed for the karst aquifer to help properly manage the water resource and sustain its utilization. The responding matrix method is used to couple the prediction model and the management model. The objective of the modeling exercises is to obtain the maximum amount of water while keeping the water level drawdown within an acceptable level. The optimum management scheme is selected among two proposed designs. The recommended measures from this study include (1) comprehensive utilization of the water pumped from the mines, (2) improvement of water use efficiency in industries, and (3) improvement of the irrigation practice. When the domestic water supply and corporation water demand take the top priorities, the numerical modeling provides a useful tool to help with the rational distribution of the karst water resources among different water users.