Problems and countermeasures of groundwater management in China: Concurrently talking about groundwater dual-control management

Remarkable achievements have been made in groundwater management in China since the implementation of the strictest water resources management system. Groundwater has been restored to some extent. By the end of 2020, the shallow groundwater level generally showed an upward trend in the Northeast China Plain, the Huang Huai Hai Plain and the Middle and Lower Yangtze Plain, and the decline rate of deep groundwater level was slowed down. Only 291 monitoring stations have an average annual decrease in groundwater level of over 2 m, accounting for 8.7% of the total national monitoring stations. However, there are still many problems difficult to solve, mainly reflecting in some areas where the groundwater level continues to decline, the balance between mining and replenishment has not yet been reached, and land subsidence still occurs. Meanwhile the effectiveness of over-exploitation area management has not been as significant as expected. In this paper, we first briefly review the progress and obtain achievements of strict groundwater management and groundwater over-exploitation area treatment in our country. Then we discuss the main problems faced by groundwater management in China, e. g., unclear delineation of hydrogeological conditions, inadequate accuracy of groundwater monitoring and measurement, inconsistency between groundwater management objectives and current technics, immature external conditions for groundwater management, and difficulty in groundwater ownership registration. The targeted countermeasures are put forward, mainly including strengthen the study of groundwater circulation and transformation from the perspective of watershed or regional water balance, strengthen the research and pilot of groundwater double-control indicator determination method, further strengthen the groundwater monitoring and mining output measurement and statistics, and further clarify the responsibilities of groundwater management. The determination method of groundwater dual-control management index is demonstrated. It is proposed that the quantitative relationship between groundwater exploitation and groundwater level should be clarified, based on the resources, geological environment, and ecological environment functions of groundwater level to determine water level control indicators, and the reasonable dual-control index should be determined considering the actual demand, groundwater management objectives, precipitation years and other conditions. This paper deeply think about the probable problems of strict groundwater management and groundwater over-exploitation treatment in China, and the solving ways of the problems is also proposed. It can provide a basis for sustainable utilization and scientific management of groundwater in China