Analysis of Groundwater Level Variations Caused by the Changes in Groundwater Withdrawals Using Long Short-Term Memory Network

Mun-Ju Shin,Duk-Chul Moon,Hyuk-Joon Koh,Soo-Hyoung Moon,Kyung Goo Kang

doi:10.3390/hydrology7030064

Abstract

To properly manage the groundwater resources, it is necessary to analyze the impact of groundwater withdrawal on the groundwater level. In this study, a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network was used to evaluate the groundwater level prediction performance and analyze the impact of the change in the amount of groundwater withdrawal from the pumping wells on the change in the groundwater level in the nearby monitoring wells located in Jeju Island, Korea. The Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency between the observed and simulated groundwater level was over 0.97. Therefore, the groundwater prediction performance of LSTM was remarkably high. If the groundwater level is simulated on the assumption that the future withdrawal amount is reduced by 1/3 of the current groundwater withdrawal, the range of the maximum rise of the groundwater level would be 0.06–0.13 m compared to the current condition. In addition, assuming that no groundwater is taken, the range of the maximum increase in the groundwater level would be 0.11–0.38 m more than the current condition. Therefore, the effect of groundwater withdrawal on the groundwater level in this area was exceedingly small. The method and results can be used to develop new groundwater withdrawal sources for the redistribution of groundwater withdrawals.

Highlights

Groundwater is an important water resource that can be used in tandem with surface water, and research on groundwater is especially important in island areas because it comprises most of the water for used living and agriculture
On Jeju Island in Korea, groundwater is an exceedingly important water resource that accounts for about 80% of the total water resource use
Jeju Island is a region with a high amount of precipitation, but most of its rivers are dry streams because of the soil’s high water permeability, so the water level of the rivers has a negligible impact on the groundwater level

Summary

Introduction

Groundwater is an important water resource that can be used in tandem with surface water, and research on groundwater is especially important in island areas because it comprises most of the water for used living and agriculture. On Jeju Island in Korea, groundwater is an exceedingly important water resource that accounts for about 80% of the total water resource use. Research on the effects of withdrawals on groundwater levels is especially important for its continuous and stable use. Jeju Island is a region with a high amount of precipitation, but most of its rivers are dry streams because of the soil’s high water permeability, so the water level of the rivers has a negligible impact on the groundwater level. To provide information for the proper management of Jeju Island’s groundwater resources, it is necessary to analyze the effects of precipitation and withdrawals on the groundwater level

Objectives

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion