Abstract
Abstract. Jinan city, the capital of Shandong Province in China, is famous for its beautiful springs. With the rapid development of the economy in recent years, water demand in Jinan city has been increasing rapidly. The over-exploitation of groundwater has caused a decline in groundwater level and, notably, dried up springs under extreme climate conditions. To keep the springs gushing perennially and sustainably use groundwater resources, the local government has implemented many measures to restore the water table, such as the Sponge City Construction Project in Jinan. Focusing on changes in spring flow and its impact factors in Jinan, this paper analyzes the changes in observed spring flow in the most recent 50 years and then discusses the causes of decreases in the spring flow with the consideration of climate and human activities. Spring flow in the study area was changed from the natural state to a period of multiwater source management. The artificial neural network (ANN) model was developed to demonstrate the relationship among spring flow, precipitation, and groundwater abstraction to predict the variations of spring flow under the conditions of climate change and human activities. The good agreement between the simulated and observed results indicates that both precipitation and exploitation are important influence factors. However the effective infiltration of precipitation into groundwater is the most influential factor. The results can provide guidance for groundwater resource protection in the Jinan spring catchment.
Highlights
Covering an area of approximately 7–12 % of the earth’s land area, karst regions are an important part of the planet, with karst aquifers supplying more than 25 % of the drinking water for the world’s population
Karst aquifers play an important role in supplying the drinking water and supporting the economic development of Jinan city, and the spring flow is a significant indicator of the changes in the groundwater system and famous landscape
Analyzing the changes of spring flow and its response to the influence factors is highly necessary for the managers of water resources
Summary
Covering an area of approximately 7–12 % of the earth’s land area, karst regions are an important part of the planet, with karst aquifers supplying more than 25 % of the drinking water for the world’s population. In northern China, there are abundant karst catchments in Shanxi, Shandong, Henan, and Hebei provinces, where karst aquifers supply the major water resources for domestic, municipal and industrial uses and agricultural irrigation. Jinan is the provincial capital of Shandong province in China and is famous for numerous karst springs, such as Baotu springs and Heihu springs. Since 2001, a series of measures have been implemented by the Jinan government to restore the flow rate of springs to sustain the demand for economic growth. The results can provide suggestions for the protection of the springs in Jinan city
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