The impact of groundwater recharge on land subsidence: a case study from the Cangzhou test area, Hebei Province, China

Groundwater recharge has become a method to prevent the expansion of land subsidence. A groundwater pumping-recharge test in Cangzhou city, Hebei Province (China), is taken as a representative example in order to monitor the changes in borehole water levels and land subsidence. The aquifer system consists of three main confined aquifers interspersed with silt and clays. Based on the lithology, the test and the Biot consolidation theory, a three-dimensional fully coupled numerical model is established to analyse the influence of groundwater recharge on the seepage field and displacement field. The results show that, due to recharge of the deeper confined aquifers (III1 and III2), the water levels rise rapidly and remain stable for a long time. By 163 days, the water-level rise is approximately 0.5 m, and the land also shows an obvious rebound. Therefore, groundwater recharge takes a long time to control land subsidence. Groundwater recharge controls the occurrence of land subsidence by increasing pore-water pressure and changing the characteristics of the aquifer system. However, the limitation is that the scope of impact of single-well recharge is limited, which is still a challenge to the governance of large areas.