Research On Groundwater Management System In The Irrigated Areas:Theory And Practice

The unreasonable exploitation of groundwater has caused environmental problems. The groundwater management system is similar to that of the surface water at present in China. However, because of the difference between the attributes of those two resources, groundwater management is poor in the irrigated areas. In order to improve the efficiency of agricultural groundwater management, theoretical requirements of groundwater management are analyzed based on the characteristics of groundwater resources in this paper. Moreover, according to the principle of sustainable development, the framework of agricultural groundwater management is investigated based on the existing unsolved issues. The main conclusions are listed in the following:(1) Based on the theoretical knowledge about hydrogeology, groundwater, water governance, the natural attributes of groundwater and requirements of those attributes are analyzed. The conclusions are1) according to the storage conditions of groundwater, and the hydraulic connections among aquifer, surface water and groundwater, the integrated management of surface water and groundwater is required to be improved, the management unit of which is aquifer system;2) due to time lag and invisibility of groundwater, and the difficulty of pollution treatment, preventive measures are of greater importance than punitive measures to protect the groundwater.(2) With the theory of institutional economics, the social attributes of groundwater and its requirements to the management are analyzed. The conclusion indicates that in order to decrease the externality and non-excludability, the groundwater management requires the coupling of government management, marketization and self-management, leading to a lower-cost and more sustainable management.(3) After learning about the current situation and unsolved problems about the agricultural groundwater management in China, and with the case study of groundwater management in Shiyang River as well, improvements of how to solve the remaining problems in the groundwater management system are illustrated. To be specific, the unit of the management system should be the groundwater storage system based on the division of the groundwater by the river basin commission. Moreover, the management of the river basin and the administrative regions should be combined. Meanwhile, the management of groundwater and surface water should be unified. For those trans-boundary aquifer systems, the administrators should negotiate with each other to solve the problem In one region, groundwater management should be carried out by department of water administration, with the assistance of department of urban construction In one irrigated area, implement the management by an organization of Water Using Association and a department of management. Moreover, an office of water management is also feasible to assist the management.(4) Based on the current situation and the principle of sustainable development, an institutional framework of agricultural groundwater management is investigated to solve the problems. According to the framework, the regulatory measures to control the exploitation of groundwater includes the planning of exploitation and protection of groundwater, dominate groundwater level, total amount control of groundwater, water rights trading, agricultural groundwater planning exploitation system, the levying of agricultural groundwater, over-quota system of progressive surcharges.