Shallow groundwater dynamics in North China Plain

The groundwater level of 39 observation wells including 35 unconfined wells and 4 confined wells from 2004 to 2006 in North China Plain (NCP) was monitored using automatic groundwater monitoring data loggers KADEC-MIZU II of Japan. The automatic groundwater sensors were installed for the corporation project between China and Japan. Combined with the monitoring results from 2004 to 2006 with the major factors affecting the dynamic patterns of groundwater, such as topography and landform, depth of groundwater level, exploitation or discharge extent, rivers and lakes, the dynamic regions of NCP groundwater were gotten. According to the dynamic features of groundwater in NCP, six dynamic patterns of groundwater level were identified, including discharge pattern in the piedmont plain, lateral recharge– runoff–discharge pattern in the piedmont plain, recharge–discharge pattern in the central channel zone, precipitation infiltration–evaporation pattern in the shallow groundwater region of the central plain, lateral recharge–evaporation pattern in the recharge-affected area along the Yellow River and infiltration–discharge–evaporation pattern in the littoral plain. Based on this, the groundwater fluctuation features of various dynamic patterns were interpreted and the influencing factors of different dynamic patterns were compared.