Application of MODFLOW and geographic information system to groundwater flow simulation in North China Plain, China

Abstract

MODFLOW is a groundwater modeling program. It can be compiled and remedied according to the practical applications. Because of its structure and fixed data format, MODFLOW can be integrated with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology for water resource management. The North China Plain (NCP), which is the politic, economic and cultural center of China, is facing with water resources shortage and water pollution. Groundwater is the main water resource for industrial, agricultural and domestic usage. It is necessary to evaluate the groundwater resources of the NCP as an entire aquifer system. With the development of computer and internet information technology it is also necessary to integrate the groundwater model with the GIS technology. Because the geological and hydrogeological data in the NCP was mainly in MAPGIS format, the powerful function of GIS of disposing of and analyzing spatial data and computer languages such as Visual C and Visual Basic were used to define the relationship between the original data and model data. After analyzing the geological and hydrogeological conditions of the NCP, the groundwater flow numerical simulation modeling was constructed with MODFLOW. On the basis of GIS, a dynamic evaluation system for groundwater resources under the internet circumstance was completed. During the process of constructing the groundwater model, a water budget was analyzed, which showed a negative budget in the NCP. The simulation period was from 1 January 2002 to 31 December 2003. During this period, the total recharge of the groundwater system was 49,374 9 10 6 m 3 and the total discharge was 56,530 9 10 6 m 3 the budget deficit was -7,156 9 10 6 m 3 . In this integrated system, the original data including graphs and attribution data could be stored in the database. When the process of evaluating and predicting groundwater flow was started, these data were transformed into files that the core program of MODFLOW could read. The calculated water level and drawdown could be displayed and reviewed online.

Integrated hydrological modeling of the North China Plain and implications for sustainable water management

“…Wang et al (2008 evaluated NCP's groundwater depletion with a groundwater depletion of 51 mm from January 2002 to December 2003. Compared to these results, the groundwater depletion during this period of our model is 67 mm, which is comparable with Wang (2006) and Wang et al's (2008) results. Xu (2006) used GMS to simulate the groundwater flow of Beijing Plain (part of the NCP) and the water deficit for the year 2000 is 42 mm.…”

“…It is known that groundwater models that are evaluated against groundwater head data alone often may not be able to provide reliable estimates beyond the scope of model calibration. However the potential strength of an integrated model as compared to a groundwater model such as the models developed by Jia et al (2002), Mao et al (2005), Wang (2006), Xu (2006), Liu et al (2008), Wang et al (2008), and Cao et al (2013) is that it is possible to use additional data sources other than hydraulic head data to evaluate and/or constrain the model. We compare simulated ET with remote sensing-based ET data (Wu et al, 2012).…”

“…Due to the rapid economic growth in the past few decades, the over-exploitation of groundwater resources has constantly raised the alert. Numerous studies, most of which solely focus on the groundwater component and employ MODFLOW as their modeling tool, have been completed to analyze the NCP's hydrological system and groundwater resources utilization, such as Jia et al (2002), Foster et al (2004), Mao et al (2005), Xu et al (2005), Nakayama et al (2006), Wang (2006), Xu (2006), Liu et al (2008), Wang et al (2008), Shao et al (2009), , Lu et al (2011), Zhou et al (2012) and Cao et al (2013). Groundwater recharge in these models is oversimplified, estimated as a fraction of the precipitation without considering the dynamics of the evaporation or the existence of irrigation.…”

“…11). Wang (2006) developed a three-dimensional numerical groundwater model using Groundwater Modeling System (GMS) for the NCP and the calculated groundwater depletion is 52 mm for the years . Wang et al (2008 evaluated NCP's groundwater depletion with a groundwater depletion of 51 mm from January 2002 to December 2003.…”

Socio-hydrological perspectives of the co-evolution of humans and groundwater in Cangzhou, North China Plain

“…The density of pumped wells have led to severe depletions of both unconfined and confined aquifers (Zhang et al, 1997;Zheng et al, 2010). Quite a few studies have been carried out to better understand the spatiotemporal variations in groundwater depletion across the NCP and to develop sustainable groundwater management options (Cao et al, 2013;Liu et al, 2008); in these works, the effects of human-induced change were evaluated by a scenario-based method (Wang et al, 2008;Liu et al, 2008Liu et al, , 2011. However, two-way feedback should be considered for a better understanding of coupled human-groundwater systems (Montanari et al, 2013).…”