http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674987111000752

A series of environmentalegeological problems have been caused by over-exploitation of deepgroundwater (i.e., confined aquifer water) in the North China Plain. In order to better understand the statusof deep groundwater over-exploitation and the resultant environmentalegeological problems on a regionalscale, the over-exploitation of groundwater has been assessed by way of the groundwater exploitationpotential coefficient (i.e., the ratio of exploitable amount of deep groundwater to current exploitation),cumulative land subsidence, and long-term average lowering rate of the groundwater table. There is a goodcorrelation among the results calculated by the different methods. On a regional scale, deep groundwaterhas been over-exploited and there is no further exploitation potential under the current conditions. Thegroundwater exploitation degree index takes the exploitation in 2003 as the reference for the calculations,so the results mainly reflect the degree of current groundwater exploitation. The results of over-exploitationof deep groundwater obtained by land subsidence data and long-term average rate of depression of the watertable mainly reflect environmentalegeological problems caused by exploitation of deep groundwater.