IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i4p1304-d322037.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evolution of Groundwater in Yinchuan Oasis at the Upper Reaches of the Yellow River after Water-Saving Transformation and Its Driving Factors

Author

Listed:
  • Lina Mi

    (School of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, China
    Efficient Uses of Water Resources in Arid Modern Agriculture Ministry of Educational, Engineering Research Center, Yinchuan 750021, China)

  • Juncang Tian

    (School of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, China
    Efficient Uses of Water Resources in Arid Modern Agriculture Ministry of Educational, Engineering Research Center, Yinchuan 750021, China)

  • Jianning Si

    (Groundwater Monitoring Department, Hydrological and Water Resources Monitoring and early Warning Center of Ningxia, Yinchuan 750001, China)

  • Yuchun Chen

    (Groundwater Monitoring Department, Hydrological and Water Resources Monitoring and early Warning Center of Ningxia, Yinchuan 750001, China)

  • Yinghai Li

    (School of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, China
    Efficient Uses of Water Resources in Arid Modern Agriculture Ministry of Educational, Engineering Research Center, Yinchuan 750021, China)

  • Xinhe Wang

    (Comprehensive Study Office, Ningxia Hydro-environmental Geological Survey Institute, Yinchuan 750021, China)

Abstract

In recent years, the amount of water diverted from the Yellow River has been decreasing year by year, which is the biggest problem for the development and utilization of water resources in Yinchuan Oasis (YCO). Through the implementation of the Agricultural Water-saving Transformation Project (AWSTP), water resource shortage in the YCO has been alleviated greatly, and ecological degradation problems, such as soil salinization, have also been effectively addressed. However, how the shallow groundwater in YCO has changed after the AWSTP remains unclear. This paper, based on a lot of statistical data and measured data, and by using statistical and geostatistical methods, reveals the evolution of shallow groundwater in YCO in the past 18 years (2000–2017), since the implementation of the AWSTP and its driving factors, from two aspects: groundwater dynamics and groundwater quality. The results show that compared with the initial stage of AWSTP, the amount of water diverted from the Yellow River for the YCO reduced by 36%, and accordingly, the average groundwater depth in the irrigation period increased from 0.98 m to 2.01 m, representing an increase of 1.03 m, and an average annual increase of 6cm. Moreover, the depth increase in the irrigation period is higher than that in the non-irrigation period, and that in the Northern Irrigation Area (NIA) is higher than that in the Southern Irrigation Area (SIA). Furthermore, the groundwater storage is decreasing at a rate of 855.6 × 10 4 m 3 ·a −1 , and the cumulative storage has reduced by nearly 1.54 × 10 8 m 3 , indicating that it is in a long-term negative equilibrium. In terms of temporal and spatial distribution of total dissolved solids (TDS) in groundwater, the TDS in SIA and NIA decreased from 1.41 g·L −1 and 1.84 g·L −1 to 1.15 g·L −1 and 1.77 g·L −1 , respectively. The saline water area with a TDS above 5 g·L −1 and the freshwater area with a TDS below 1 g·L −1 decreased by 16.6 km 2 and 334.4 km 2 , respectively, while the brackish water area with a TDS of 1~3 g·L −1 increased by 492 km 2 . The spatial and temporal distribution heterogeneity of TDS in groundwater is reduced and is in a slight desalinized trend overall. However, the groundwater in some areas, such as the Xingqing District, Jinfeng District, Xixia District, Yongning County, Helan County and Huinong District of Yinchuan Oasis, is at risk of further salinization. Due to the agricultural water-saving caused by the reduction of water amount diverted from the Yellow River, the groundwater recharge in YCO was reduced by 36.3%, which, together with measures such as drainage, groundwater exploitation, and industrial restructuring, drives the groundwater circulation in the YCO to a new equilibrium. This study can help us to understand the influencing process and mechanism of agricultural water-saving on groundwater systems in YCO and provide reference for efficient use and optimal allocation and management of agricultural water resources.

Suggested Citation

  • Lina Mi & Juncang Tian & Jianning Si & Yuchun Chen & Yinghai Li & Xinhe Wang, 2020. "Evolution of Groundwater in Yinchuan Oasis at the Upper Reaches of the Yellow River after Water-Saving Transformation and Its Driving Factors," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-17, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:4:p:1304-:d:322037
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/4/1304/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/4/1304/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Xu Xu & Guanhua Huang & Zhongyi Qu & Luis Pereira, 2011. "Using MODFLOW and GIS to Assess Changes in Groundwater Dynamics in Response to Water Saving Measures in Irrigation Districts of the Upper Yellow River Basin," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 25(8), pages 2035-2059, June.
    2. Xu, Xu & Huang, Guanhua & Qu, Zhongyi & Pereira, Luis S., 2010. "Assessing the groundwater dynamics and impacts of water saving in the Hetao Irrigation District, Yellow River basin," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(2), pages 301-313, December.
    3. Xue, Jingyuan & Guan, Huade & Huo, Zailin & Wang, Fengxin & Huang, Guanhua & Boll, Jan, 2017. "Water saving practices enhance regional efficiency of water consumption and water productivity in an arid agricultural area with shallow groundwater," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 78-89.
    4. Al-Ghobari, Hussein M. & El-Marazky, Mohamed S. & Dewidar, Ahmed Z. & Mattar, Mohamed A., 2018. "Prediction of wind drift and evaporation losses from sprinkler irrigation using neural network and multiple regression techniques," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 211-221.
    5. Deng, Xi-Ping & Shan, Lun & Zhang, Heping & Turner, Neil C., 2006. "Improving agricultural water use efficiency in arid and semiarid areas of China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 80(1-3), pages 23-40, February.
    6. Liu, Zhongyi & Chen, Hang & Huo, Zailin & Wang, Fengxin & Shock, Clinton C., 2016. "Analysis of the contribution of groundwater to evapotranspiration in an arid irrigation district with shallow water table," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 131-141.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lin Chen & Kun Ma, 2023. "Spatial and Temporal Distribution and Source Analysis of Heavy Metals in Agricultural Soils of Ningxia, Northwest of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-20, October.
    2. Shuhang Li & Mohamed Abdelkareem & Nassir Al-Arifi, 2023. "Mapping Groundwater Prospective Areas Using Remote Sensing and GIS-Based Data Driven Frequency Ratio Techniques and Detecting Land Cover Changes in the Yellow River Basin, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-20, March.
    3. Liu, Meihan & Paredes, Paula & Shi, Haibin & Ramos, Tiago B. & Dou, Xu & Dai, Liping & Pereira, Luis S., 2022. "Impacts of a shallow saline water table on maize evapotranspiration and groundwater contribution using static water table lysimeters and the dual Kc water balance model SIMDualKc," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 273(C).
    4. Li, Shuoyang & Yang, Guiyu & Wang, Hao & Song, Xiufang & Chang, Cui & Du, Jie & Gao, Danyang, 2023. "A spatial-temporal optimal allocation method of irrigation water resources considering groundwater level," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liu, Meihan & Paredes, Paula & Shi, Haibin & Ramos, Tiago B. & Dou, Xu & Dai, Liping & Pereira, Luis S., 2022. "Impacts of a shallow saline water table on maize evapotranspiration and groundwater contribution using static water table lysimeters and the dual Kc water balance model SIMDualKc," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 273(C).
    2. Xue, Jingyuan & Guan, Huade & Huo, Zailin & Wang, Fengxin & Huang, Guanhua & Boll, Jan, 2017. "Water saving practices enhance regional efficiency of water consumption and water productivity in an arid agricultural area with shallow groundwater," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 78-89.
    3. Zhao, Tianxing & Zhu, Yan & Ye, Ming & Yang, Jinzhong & Jia, Biao & Mao, Wei & Wu, Jingwei, 2022. "A new approach for estimating spatial-temporal phreatic evapotranspiration at a regional scale using NDVI and water table depth measurements," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    4. Gao, Xiaoyu & Huo, Zailin & Xu, Xu & Qu, Zhongyi & Huang, Guanhua & Tang, Pengcheng & Bai, Yining, 2018. "Shallow groundwater plays an important role in enhancing irrigation water productivity in an arid area: The perspective from a regional agricultural hydrology simulation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 43-58.
    5. Wu, Zhangsheng & Li, Yue & Wang, Rong & Xu, Xu & Ren, Dongyang & Huang, Quanzhong & Xiong, Yunwu & Huang, Guanhua, 2023. "Evaluation of irrigation water saving and salinity control practices of maize and sunflower in the upper Yellow River basin with an agro-hydrological model based method," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 278(C).
    6. Wen, Yeqiang & Shang, Songhao & Rahman, Khalil Ur & Xia, Yuhong & Ren, Dongyang, 2020. "A semi-distributed drainage model for monthly drainage water and salinity simulation in a large irrigation district in arid region," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
    7. Li, Jiang & Mao, Xiaomin & Li, Mo, 2017. "Modeling hydrological processes in oasis of Heihe River Basin by landscape unit-based conceptual models integrated with FEFLOW and GIS," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 338-351.
    8. Xu, Hang & Song, Jianfeng, 2022. "Drivers of the irrigation water rebound effect: A case study of Hetao irrigation district in Yellow River basin, China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    9. Miao, Qingfeng & Rosa, Ricardo D. & Shi, Haibin & Paredes, Paula & Zhu, Li & Dai, Jiaxin & Gonçalves, José M. & Pereira, Luis S., 2016. "Modeling water use, transpiration and soil evaporation of spring wheat–maize and spring wheat–sunflower relay intercropping using the dual crop coefficient approach," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 211-229.
    10. Xiong, Lvyang & Jiang, Yao & Li, Xinyi & Ren, Dongyang & Huang, Guanhua, 2023. "Long-term regional groundwater responses and their ecological impacts under agricultural water saving in an arid irrigation district, upper Yellow River basin," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 288(C).
    11. Zhang, Xiaoxing & Guo, Ping & Zhang, Fan & Liu, Xiao & Yue, Qiong & Wang, Youzhi, 2021. "Optimal irrigation water allocation in Hetao Irrigation District considering decision makers’ preference under uncertainties," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    12. Xu, Xu & Huang, Guanhua & Sun, Chen & Pereira, Luis S. & Ramos, Tiago B. & Huang, Quanzhong & Hao, Yuanyuan, 2013. "Assessing the effects of water table depth on water use, soil salinity and wheat yield: Searching for a target depth for irrigated areas in the upper Yellow River basin," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 46-60.
    13. Liu, Yi & Hu, Yue & Wei, Chenchen & Zeng, Wenzhi & Huang, Jiesheng & Ao, Chang, 2024. "Synergistic regulation of irrigation and drainage based on crop salt tolerance and leaching threshold," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    14. Bai, Liangliang & Cai, Jiabing & Liu, Yu & Chen, He & Zhang, Baozhong & Huang, Lingxu, 2017. "Responses of field evapotranspiration to the changes of cropping pattern and groundwater depth in large irrigation district of Yellow River basin," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 1-11.
    15. Sun, Guanfang & Zhu, Yan & Ye, Ming & Yang, Jinzhong & Qu, Zhongyi & Mao, Wei & Wu, Jingwei, 2019. "Development and application of long-term root zone salt balance model for predicting soil salinity in arid shallow water table area," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 486-498.
    16. Ren, Dongyang & Xu, Xu & Engel, Bernard & Huang, Quanzhong & Xiong, Yunwu & Huo, Zailin & Huang, Guanhua, 2019. "Hydrological complexities in irrigated agro-ecosystems with fragmented land cover types and shallow groundwater: Insights from a distributed hydrological modeling method," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 868-881.
    17. Zhang, Kang & Xie, Xianhong & Zhu, Bowen & Meng, Shanshan & Yao, Yi, 2019. "Unexpected groundwater recovery with decreasing agricultural irrigation in the Yellow River Basin," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 858-867.
    18. Xu Xu & Guanhua Huang & Zhongyi Qu & Luis Pereira, 2011. "Using MODFLOW and GIS to Assess Changes in Groundwater Dynamics in Response to Water Saving Measures in Irrigation Districts of the Upper Yellow River Basin," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 25(8), pages 2035-2059, June.
    19. Xiao, Xue & Xu, Xu & Ren, Dongyang & Huang, Quanzhong & Huang, Guanhua, 2021. "Modeling the behavior of shallow groundwater system in sustaining arid agroecosystems with fragmented land use," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 249(C).
    20. Xiong, Lvyang & Xu, Xu & Engel, Bernard & Xiong, Yunwu & Huang, Quanzhong & Huang, Guanhua, 2021. "Predicting agroecosystem responses to identify appropriate water-saving management in arid irrigated regions with shallow groundwater: Realization on a regional scale," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:4:p:1304-:d:322037. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.