Integrating MODFLOW and GIS technologies for assessing impacts of irrigation management and groundwater use in the Hetao Irrigation District, Yellow River basin

Due to severe water scarcity, water resources used in agricultural sector have been reduced markedly in Hetao irrigation district. Application of water-saving practices (WSPs) is required for the sustainable agricultural development. The human activities including WSPs and increase of groundwater abstraction can lower down the groundwater table, which is helpful to the salinity control. Meanwhile, an excessively large groundwater table depth may result in negative impact on crop growth and fragile ecological environment. In this paper, the Jiefangzha irrigation system in Hetao irrigation district was selected as a typical area, a groundwater flow model based on ArcInfo Geographic Information System (GIS) was developed and implemented to quantify the effect of human activities on the groundwater system in this area. The pre- and post-processing of model data was performed efficiently by using the available GIS tools. The time-variant data in boundary conditions was further edited in Microsoft Excel with programs of Visual Basic for Application (VBA). The model was calibrated and validated with independent data sets. Application of the model indicated that it can well describe the effect of human activities on groundwater dynamics in Jiefangzha irrigation system.