Evaluation of Groundwater Resources and Exploitation Potential: A Case from Weifang City of Shandong Province in China

[Image: see text] With the rapid growth of population and economy, the demand for groundwater resources is also increasing, leading to the exploitation of groundwater in some areas far greater than the recharge, which easily causes a series of environmental geological problems such as groundwater drawdown, water quality deterioration, surface subsidence, and so on. Taking Shouguang water resource in Weifang City, Shandong Province, China, as an example, the water-bearing formation in the study area can be divided into three types: pore water-bearing formation of unconsolidated sediments, karst fissure water-bearing formation of carbonate rock, and bedrock fissure water-bearing formation. According to the pumping test results, the groundwater-richness zones in the study area were delineated first. On this basis, by analyzing the dynamic changes of groundwater, the study area was divided into 40 blocks, and the natural recharge of groundwater in each block was calculated by the analogy method of the infiltration coefficient of precipitation. Then, combined with the actual situation of the study area, the allowable withdrawal of groundwater resources, mainly including pore water-bearing formation of unconsolidated sediments, karst fissure water-bearing formation of carbonate rock, and bedrock fissure water-bearing formation, was calculated using the safe yield modulus method, the improved method of the uniform arrangement of wells, and temporary storage capacity, respectively. Through the calculation, it can be concluded that the total allowable withdrawal of shallow groundwater resources in Shouguang city is 6292.5783 × 10(4) m(3)/a, that of middle and deep layer groundwater resources is 2574.92 × 10(4) m(3)/a, that of karst fissure water in carbonate rock is 1767.92 × 10(4) m(3)/a, and that of bedrock fissure water is 307.89 × 10(4) m(3)/a. The results show that within the study area, karst fissure water in carbonate rock and bedrock fissure water have immense exploitation potential.