Evolution Characteristics of Groundwater Level and its Relation to Low-Carbon Development in Southern Horqin Sandy Land, China

Abstract

With remarkable impacts of climate change and anthropogenic activities, the Horqin Sandy Land presents southward invading trend, which threatens the city development in southern water shortage cities. Therefore, to prevent the sandy land from southward invading and to protect the city water security, it is of great importance to reasonably explore the groundwater in southern Horqin Sandy Land. Based on the data of groundwater level, precipitation, temperature, population, etc. from 1997 to 2016 in Kangping County, this paper focused on evolution characteristics analysis and genesis analysis of the groundwater level in Kangping County. The results show a significant decrease of groundwater level from 2014 to 2016, with a substantial increase of population in 2015. The PCA (Principal Component Analysis) ordination showed that the groundwater level in the south, middle and north of Kangping county was positively related to each other. The groundwater level had a significantly negative correlation with population and temperature, while a remarkably positive correlation with precipitation. It is calculated that the annual extraction of groundwater by thermal power generation in Kangping County releases about 18,740 t of CO2. As population increases, the groundwater level will continue to decrease, the carbon emissions will increase as well. It is suggested to reduce thermal power generation pattern by developing the abundant local wind and solar energy resources, thus achieving the low-carbon development in water shortage cities.