Estimation of Suitable Groundwater Safe Yield under the Unusually Constraints of Environmental Conditions in Taipei Basin, Taiwan

Abstract

The Taipei Basin in Taiwan is an extremely special case under the constraints of environmental conditions. Pumping of groundwater in the basin was banned in 1968 due to the land subsidence. Since then, groundwater level in the Taipei basin has risen over the years and the land subsidence has also stopped. However, due to the continuous rise of groundwater level, the soil liquefaction potential of saturated sand soil strata has increased. Thus, the groundwater in Taipei basin should be controlled based on the suitable groundwater level to reduce the possibility of land subsidence or soil liquefaction. This study proposes a novel performance of groundwater management model, which considers the three aspects of safe yield, soil liquefaction, and land subsidence. In this process, a three-dimensional groundwater numerical model is primarily established with MODFLOW, and the safe yield and groundwater level are deduced through the Hill method. The second part requires an estimation of the soil liquefaction potential by applying the Seed97 method. The third part of the process includes an estimation of the subsidence of sand by adopting the Ishihara method and the subsidence of clay blanket through the Terazaghi method. Finally, combine the limited groundwater level through the application of the said methods, the proper scope for the level of groundwater in the Taipei Basin is then estimated. Hence, the maximum amount of groundwater that can be pumped could be estimated based on the suitable lower limit of groundwater level, and the minimum amount of groundwater that can be pumped could be estimated based on the suitable upper limit of groundwater level. The study result indicates the central region in the basin has a high potential of soil liquefaction, while the periphery of the basin has a high potential for land subsidence. In consideration of three environmental limited constraints, namely, safe yield of groundwater, soil liquefaction, and land subsidence, could estimate the maximum groundwater amount that can be generated per annum is about 0.77x109m3 to 1.03x109m3, while the minimum groundwater amount per annum is about 0.53x 109m3 to 0.71x109m3.