Influence of Climate Change and Anthropogenic Activities on Groundwater Level in the Northern Huangqihai Basin, China

Abstract

The variation in the groundwater level, which is an indicative factor that can reflect changes in both groundwater level and groundwater quantity, was selected as the factor to be analyzed. Rainfall and groundwater exploitation were chosen as the representative factors of climate change and anthropogenic activities, respectively. By applying the elastic coefficient method and other mathematical statistical methods, the influence of climate change and anthropogenic activities on groundwater was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The northern Huangqihai basin was chosen as the study area. The rainfall in the study area showed an increasing trend from 1996–2020, while most variations in groundwater level were negative. This result indicated that the positive influence of rainfall on the variation in the groundwater level in the study area was not enough to offset the negative influence of groundwater exploitation. The correlation between anthropogenic activities and variations in the groundwater level was lower in wet years than in normal years but the highest in dry years. Based on the comparative method of the slope changing ratio of cumulative quantity and the elastic coefficient method, it was determined that the contribution rate of climate change to the variation in groundwater level was 22.08% and that of human activities was 77.92%. Thus, the sustainable development of the groundwater environment can be realized by positively guiding anthropogenic activities and minimizing negative influences.