Abstract
The North China Plain, with a population of approximately 150 million, is facing severe water scarcity. The over-exploitation of groundwater in the region, with accumulation amounts reaching more than 150 billion m3, causes a series of hydrological and geological problems together with the consumption of a significant amount of energy. Here, we highlight the energy and greenhouse gas-related environmental co-benefits of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project (SNWDP). Moreover, we evaluate the energy-saving effect of SNWDP on groundwater exploitation based on the groundwater-exploitation reduction program implemented by the Chinese government. Our results show that the transferred water will replace about 2.97 billion m3 of exploited groundwater in the water reception area by 2020 and hence reduce energy consumption by 931 million kWh. Further, by 2030, 6.44 billion m3 of groundwater, which accounts for 27% of the current groundwater withdrawal, will save approximately 7% of Beijing’s current thermal power generation output.
Highlights
Groundwater over-exploitation has caused problems such as river dry-up, lake shrinkage, aquifer depletion, and land subsidence in many areas[10,11]
Despite the increasing use of reclaimed water and desalinated seawater year after year, groundwater is still the main source of water supply in the region, its contribution to the total water withdrawal varies in different parts of the NCP
The diverted water from the South-to-North Water Diversion Project (SNWDP) is playing a crucial role in rational water allocation and ecological environment protection
Summary
Groundwater over-exploitation has caused problems such as river dry-up, lake shrinkage, aquifer depletion, and land subsidence in many areas[10,11]. Total water consumption in the NCP area has shown a gradual increasing trend[9], and a large amount of energy has been consumed by the water-pumping system[12,13]. In the southern Haihe River Plain, which accounts for 30% of the NCP area, the energy used to pump shallow groundwater for irrigation can reach 1.63 billion kWh15. With the implementation of the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project (SNWDP; Fig. 1), the regional water supply structure has changed gradually, which will reduce groundwater exploitation in the area[16,17]. The reduced energy consumption from reduced water pumping in 2020 and 2030 will be estimated in addition to the influence of the middle route SNWDP on carbon emissions. With consideration of data availability, the 10-year period from 2004 to 2013 is the reference period for comparison, which is just before the official operation of the middle route of the SNWDP
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