Study and Evaluation of Dynamic Carrying Capacity of Groundwater Resources in Hebei Province from 2010 to 2017

Boxin Wang, Bin Wang, Xiaobing Zhao, Jiao Li () and Dasheng Zhang ()
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Boxin Wang: School of Water Resources and Electric Power, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan 056038, China
Bin Wang: Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, Beijing 100012, China
Xiaobing Zhao: Technical Centre for Soil, Agricultural and Rural Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Beijing 100012, China
Jiao Li: Technical Centre for Soil, Agricultural and Rural Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Beijing 100012, China
Dasheng Zhang: Hebei Institute of Water Science, Shijiazhuang 050051, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 5, 1-15

Abstract: There is a severe issue with groundwater overuse and water scarcity in the North China Plain. The capacity of groundwater resources to promote economic development is also diminished due to the overexploitation of resources to suit the industrial needs of diverse sectors. Therefore, it is crucial to research the regional groundwater resource carrying capacity from both a temporal and spatial perspective. The relationship between water usage efficiency and groundwater availability, which was built using regional data on water supply and consumption as well as gross domestic product, is used in this study to assess the carrying capacity of Hebei’s groundwater resources through time and space. The results show that from the perspective of time, in the years when the groundwater resource exploitation degree is greater than one from 2010 to 2017, the contribution rate of the groundwater resource exploitation to economic development reaches 62.5%, indicating that the economic development of the study area is highly dependent on the groundwater resources. The exploitation degree of groundwater resources is less than one, but the degree of economic development value keeps increasing to nearly 80% and the overexploitation rate is 75% in the total time scale. In terms of spatial scale, only Hengshui City has no overexploitation index, and the overexploitation rate is 9.1%. The overload and severe overload areas account for 45.45%, respectively. Among them, the exploitation degree of groundwater has been in a state of over-saturation, and as economic development depends on groundwater resources, water efficiency needs to be improved through water saving. Optimizing and promoting industrial structures and water-saving technology to further improve water efficiency are key factors to improve the carrying capacity of groundwater resources.

Keywords: groundwater resources; degree of groundwater exploitation; water utilization efficiency; degree of social and economic development; Hebei (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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