Impact of water transfer on interaction between surface water and groundwater in the lowland area of North China Plain

Abstract

The contradiction between the freshwater shortage and the large demand of freshwater by irrigation was the key point in cultivated lowland area of North China Plain. Water transfer project brings fresh water from water resource‐rich area to water shortage area, which can in turn change the hydrological cycle in this region. Major ions and stable isotopes were used to study the temporal variations of interaction between surface water and groundwater in a hydrological year after a water transfer event in November 2014. Irrigation canal received transferred Yellow River, with 2.9% loss by evaporation during water transfer process. The effect of transferred water on shallow groundwater decreased with increasing distance from the irrigation canal. Pit pond without water transfer receives groundwater discharge. During dry season after water transfer event, shallow groundwater near the irrigation canal was recharged by lateral seepage and deep percolation of irrigation, whereas shallow groundwater far from irrigation canal was recharged by deep percolation of deep groundwater irrigation. Canal water lost by evaporation was 2.7–17.4%. Influence of water transfer gradually disappeared until March as the water usage of agricultural irrigation increased. In the dry season, groundwater discharged to irrigation canal and pond; 2.2–31.6% canal water and 11.3–20.0% pond water were lost by evaporation. In the rainy season (June to September), surface water was fed mainly by precipitation and surface run‐off, whereas groundwater was recharged by infiltration of precipitation. The two‐end member mix model showed that the mixing ratio of precipitation in pond and irrigation canal were 73–83.4% (except one pond with 28.1%) and 77.3–99.9%, respectively. Transferred water and precipitation were the important recharge sources for shallow groundwater, which decreased groundwater salinity in cultivated lowland area of North China Plain. With the temporary and spatial limitation of water transfer effects, increased water transfer amounts and frequency may be an effective way of mitigating regional water shortage. In addition, reducing the evaporation of surface water is also an important way to increase the utilization of transfer water.

Evaporation loss along the Calueque-Oshakati Canal in the Cuvelai-Etosha Basin (Northern Namibia): evidence from stable isotopes and hydrochemistry

“…The water volume is about 160,000 m 3 in the canal (160 km flow length, 2.5 m canal width and 0.4 m water depth), so an overall water loss of circa 8000 m 3 is estimated (equal to 20 L/m 2 evaporation loss). These evaporative losses are on the same order as those found by Dogramaci et al [34] for a dryland stream in northwestern Australia (up to ∼4 %), but somewhat lower than the 2-32 % range reported by Kong et al [39] for irrigation canals in the North China Plain.…”

Hydrochemical characterization of shallow and deep groundwater in Basement Complex areas of southern Kebbi State, Sokoto Basin, Nigeria

“…Effluents from municipal, industrial, and crop fields are transported to groundwater by surface flows via infiltration (recharge) zones. These impurities are first collected into shallow aquifers (Kong et al 2018;Narr et al 2019), before their eventual downward movement to deep groundwater reservoirs, where they may stay for decades or even centuries.…”

Characteristics of δ18O and δ2H and their implication for the interaction between precipitation, groundwater and river water in the upper River Tuojiang, Southwest China

“…The isotopic composition of groundwater and river water provides evidence for this close hydraulic relation (Shamsuddin et al 2018). This close hydraulic relationship among groundwater and river water will be weak with the increase in the distance to the river (Zhao & Li 2017;Kong et al 2018). (Figure 7).…”