Xu Zhenci¹, Peter Jolly², Pan Zenghui³

1. Director Hebei Provincial Academy of Water Resources, China

2. Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts, Northern Territory, Australia

3. Hebei Provincial Academy of Water Resources, China

Abstract: Both Hebei province and the Daly region have heavy rainfall in a short wet season followed by a long dry period. With regard to groundwater allocation, both areas have made great efforts to move towards sustainable development and utilization of their groundwater resources. The background and water resources condition in both areas are discussed and the efforts the two regions are making to move towards sustainable development and utilization of their groundwater resources are compared and analysed.

Key words: Groundwater, Allocation, Hebei, Daly region, Challenge, Water Resources

1 Introduction

With the development of society and economy, groundwater is often over extracted to satisfy the increasing water demand.

Hebei Province, located in northern China in the region surrounding Beijing and Tianjin, covers an area of 187,000 square kilometres and has a population of approximately 68 million. The Daly Region, located in the north of Australia, covers an area of approximately 50,000 square kilometres and has a population of approximately 10 thousand. Both regions have hot, rainy summers and dry winters.

Hebei Province is one of the largest agricultural areas in China. Groundwater resources are being used for irrigated agriculture, municipal water supplies and industry. This has led to over-allocation of groundwater resources and adverse impacts on river flows and lake levels. Options for re-establishing a balance between water use and supply are being considered.

The Daly Region is an area that has the potential for large scale agricultural development. The Daly River is the most significant feature in the region because of its perennial stream flow. Winter flows in the DalyRiver are sourced from groundwater. Changes in the volume of water entering the river will impact upon groundwater dependent ecosystems. A water allocation plan is being prepared for the Daly Region.

There is an increasing recognition in both regions that healthy aquatic ecosystems provide tangible economic and social benefits. There is also an increased understanding of the management needs of surface and groundwater systems, including their interconnection. At the same time, there is an increasing demand for groundwater for agriculture. The water allocation processes being implemented in both regions will be compared to determine how these conflicting needs are being considered.

2 The Challenge of Water Resources Allocation in Hebei Province and the Daly Region

2.1 Water resources in Hebei Province

Hebei Province has a temperate continental monsoonal climate. Most of the Province has clear-cut seasons, with dry and windy springs, hot and rainy summers and dry-cold winters. Mean annual precipitation is 350-750 mm. Heavier rainfall events are infrequent but they make up a significant percentage of the total rainfall.

There is only 311 m³ of water resources per capita per year in Hebei province, only 1/7 of the average level in China. Therefore, groundwater plays a very important role in social and economical development. The water supplied from groundwater in 2000 was 78.2% of the total water supply.

According to the available data, 5 billion m³ of groundwater is over-extracted annually and the groundwater cone of depression is becoming more serious.

Because of the groundwater over-extraction, the water table is dropping dramatically. In the past two decades, the level of over-extraction was 31.6 billion m³ for shallow groundwater and 28.5 billion m³ for deep groundwater. In 2005, the groundwater cone of depression continued to develop in Hebei Province, both in area and in depth. In Baoding and Xingtai, the water table in the centre of the groundwater cone of depression dropped 5.5 m and in Cangzhou the area increased to 2089 km².

The available groundwater resources are 11.99 billion m3 and the nature recharge is 17.03 billion m³ in 2005. Baoding and Shijiazhuang city occupy more groundwater resources, and Hengshui, Langfang andQinhuangdao occupy less. Compared with 2004, the water table in these areas is still dropping. The water table in the mountainous area is relative steady.

The water table of the shallow groundwater beneath the plain is dropping over most of the plain. The percentage of the area of the plain where the water table is decreasing by 0.5-2.0 m/year is 43.3% and by more than 2.0 m/year is 11.9%. The percentage of the area of the plain where the water table is increasing at over 2.0 m/year is only 4.3%, mainly in Cangzhou, Handan.

The potentiometric head of the deep groundwater resource is also dropping and the area where the head is dropping at over 2.0 m/year is 34.2% of the total area, mainly in Hengshui, Cangzhou, Langfang, Xingtai,Handan and Shijianzhuang. And the area of water table increasing depth over 2.0 m is only 6.30% of the total area.

2.2 The present status of water resources allocation in Hebei Province

In 2004, the total amount of water supplied was 19.44 billion m³. This included 15.18 billion m³ of groundwater（Hebei Water Resources Bulletin 2004）. The main users and their demand are shown in Table 1 and the percentage allocation to the various users is shown on Figure 1.

Table 1 Groundwater demand in Hebei Province, 2004  Unit: billion m³                                 

The data shown in Table 1 and Figure 1 identifies that most of the groundwater is consumed by agriculture, industry and domestic users.

The development of agriculture, industry and an improving life style has resulted in a very serious over-extraction of ground water in Hebei province.

2.3 Future water demand in Hebei

According to the Hebei 11th Five Year Plan 2006-2010, the Integrated Evaluation of Water Resources in Hebei, and the Integrated Planning of Water Resources in Hebei and other plans, future water demand inHebei has been predicted, taking into consideration the development of society, economy and environment. It has been predicted that the total water demand will reach between 23.43 billion m3 (P=50%) and 26.11 billion m3 (P=75%) in 2010 and between 25.12 billion m3 (P=50%) and 27.52 billon m3 (P=75%) in 2020.

The water resources available to meet the predicted demand include surface water, groundwater, transferred water from south to north, and unconventional water (Hebei Water Resources Evaluation, 2003).

Considering both conditions with and without water resources from the project of the South-to-North Water Division, predicted water supply and water demand can be calculated for the different target years – 2010 and 2020. The data are shown in Table 2.

Table 2 Available water resources and water demand prediction Unit: billion m³

From this table, we can see that the water deficiency is still serious in Hebei even after the project of South-to-North Water Diversion is completed.

2.4 Water resources of the Daly Region

The Daly River is a large (52 577 km2 catchment area) perennial river located about 200 km south of Darwin. Rainfall is distinctly seasonal throughout the catchment. Most of the region’s rain comes as hard, intermittent, tropical showers, often associated with thunder and lightning (Bauer, 1964) or as monsoon troughs and tropical lows, which are often the remains of cyclonic depressions. The highest recorded daily rainfall at Mango Farm (Daly River), Douglas River and Katherine is 218.5mm, 206.4mm and 128.5mm, respectively (NT Bureau of Meteorology, 1997).

The mean annual runoff varies across the catchment from 119 to 294 mm, except for the Dry River where it is only 23 mm. At the most downstream gauge (Mt Nancar), the mean annual runoff of the Daly Riveris 148 mm of which 135 mm is surface runoff and 13 mm is regional groundwater discharge. Sustained base flow of about 7 to 20 m3s-1 persists right through the Dry season at Mt Nancar (Chappell & Bardsley 1985).

Many rivers in the Daly River catchment exhibit persistent stream flow right through the Dry season due to groundwater inflows from significant aquifers (Jolly 1984, 2001, 2002, Jolly et al 2000). Those contained in carbonate rocks of the Daly Basin are the most significant (Jolly 1984, 2001, 2002, Jolly et al 2000). Annual recharge of aquifers varies from 0 mm in dry years to 300 mm in wet years with an average of 90 mm. The inter-annular variation in minimum instantaneous discharge at three gauging stations on the Katherine and Daly rivers only ranged over two orders of magnitude and cease-to-flow conditions never occurred between 1961 and 2000. Groundwater levels vary greatly during the year reflecting the duration and magnitude of the Wet season (recharge) and the discharge of groundwater to rivers and transpiration losses by trees during the Dry season. For an average year, 23% of rainfall is converted to runoff but this varies from 10% for the year of minimum catchment rainfall to 36% for the year of maximum catchment rainfall. Pumping for water supply purposes is very small and is currently less than 0.2% of mean annual runoff.

2.5 Water resources allocation in the Daly Region

In the Daly region, water is allocated for both non-consumptive and consumptive uses. Water allocated to the environment and for cultural use belongs to non-consumptive uses. The consumptive uses compose of the public water supply, rural stock & domestic, industry (tourism), agriculture and aquaculture uses. Provision for consumptive uses are made after environmental and cultural provisions, and must be within the remaining yield capabilities, both individually and conjunctively of aquifers and streams.

In the Daly region allocations are being made for all non-consumptive and consumptive uses, for each groundwater aquifer and river system, and these allocations are linked to water balances, and provide certainty for current consumptive users whilst conserving environmental and cultural needs.

In the water allocation plan, all available scientific research directly related to environmental water requirements will be applied in setting environmental water provisions. In the absence of scientific research directly related to environmental water requirements, the following contingent allocations are made for environmental water provisions and consumptive use: for rivers, at least 80% of flow at any time in any part of a river is allocated to the environment, and no more than 20% of flow may be diverted at any time in any part of river; for aquifers, at least 80% of annual recharge is allocated to the environment, and annual extraction will be equivalent to no more than 20% of annual recharge.

In the event that current and/or projected consumptive use exceeds the 20% threshold levels, then some limitation will be added. New surface water licences will not be granted unless supported by directly related scientific research into environmental water requirements. New groundwater licences will not be granted unless supported either by: directly related scientific research into the requirements of groundwater dependent ecosystems, or hydrologic modelling confirming that groundwater discharge is reduced by no more than 20%.

For sustainable use of water resources in the Daly region the water allocation plan will ensure that the water allocation for each different use does not impact on any other use, and the total amount of water used is within the combined capacities of rivers and aquifers to sustain all uses.

3 The Methods to Balance Water Supply and Water Demand in Hebei

The predicted water deficit in Hebei is very serious even after the South-to-North Water Diversion Project. Much research and field work is required to balance the water supply and water demand.

3.1 Researching the interchange between groundwater and surface water

Water resources are composed of surface water, groundwater and moisture in the air.  There is a connection between groundwater and surface water. In Hebei, the government has investigated and evaluated the Province’s water resources, identifying the connection between groundwater and surface water. Because there is almost no flow in rivers in Hebei at present owing to excess development of surface water, ground water plays an even more important role in the development process, thus increasing the extent of the groundwater cone of depression. Because there is so little flow in the rivers only a small amount of surface water recharges into the aquifer, which makes the groundwater cone even more serious.

3.2 Constructing water conservation society

The main characteristics of a water conservation society is to build a management system based on water right and water market theory, and improve water use efficiency by water market and other economic and cultural measures.

The development planning should consider water resources conditions, and then the industry structure should be adjusted according to the available water supply. Through optimizing water allocation among different industries by water use efficiency and output, water can be allocated across society with a high level of efficiency.

Water right is another powerful tool in constructing a water conservation society, especially with regard to the initial water right allocation. Clarifying the water right is needed to determine the water supply to different users and industries.

Public participation is the basis of a water conservation society. Through water right, water market and cultural means, more people can be inspired to take part in water-saving activities.

3.3 Adjusting priority for water resources utilization

In the past several decades, agriculture, industry and domestic use occupied most of the water supply. Environmental allocation has not been a consideration in Hebei. With increasing awareness of the environment, more attention is being focused on the aquatic environment but the total amount of water allocated to environmental aspects is still small. A reasonable priority for use of the water resource should be domestic use, environmental use, agricultural and industrial use, and other use.

3.4 Recharging Groundwater

Because of the development of agriculture, industry and the improvement of the standard of living, the over-extraction to ground water is very serious. In Hebei province, some measures are being developed to address this over-extraction, including water conservation and recharge. The main recharge methods are riverbed infiltration, flood collection by river and lake/reservoir, surface over-sufficient irrigation, and recharging groundwater through recharge wells.

Hebei constructed a pilot project in Yuanshi County for groundwater recharge in 2001. After 50 days and the diversion of 7 million m3 of water, recharge resulted in the water table increasing by up to 3.2 metres.

3.5 Transferring water from other watersheds

The South-to-North Water Diversion Project aims to divert water from the Yangtze River watershed to the reaches of Yellow River, Huaihe River and Haihe River so as to ensure the water supply for farming, industry and life in northern China. It is estimated that the cost will be more than 100 billion Yuan (12 billion U.S. dollars). The project will have three water diversion routes, namely the east route, middle route and west route (Fu Changheng, 2005). The middle route and east route will reach Hebei province in 2008. At present the water of the Yellow River is being transferred to Hebei, which is partly alleviating the water crisis.

3.6 Utilization of unconventional water resources

The unconventional water resources compose of wastewater, rainwater, seawater, salt water, and other unconventional sources.

In 2005, wastewater discharge was about 2 billion m3 in Hebei and the recycle rate was less than 15%. There is a big potential for using that to satisfy the water demand. If all wastewater is recycled, 25% of the water deficit can be compensated. There are 2 ways to use the wastewater. The first way is “clean production” and “circulation economy”. It can decrease the wastewater discharge and protect water environment. The second way is to treat wastewater and reuse it in toilet, irrigation, and urban environment.

Floodwaters and rainwater are other important unconventional water resources. Because of the uneven distribution of rainfall in time, heavy rainfall in the wet season can result in serious floods if it is not controlled, especially in urban areas. There are several methods to use rainfall and floodwaters, including collecting rainwater through road and roof and improving infiltration using infiltrative pavements.

3.7 Policy and regulations

Hebei provincial government makes great efforts to formulate policy and regulations about water conservation. Now a series of policy and regulations have been established to control the excess water demand and to make a balance between surface water and groundwater. Water conservation is viewed as a basic policy now and many policies and regulations have been published. For instance, new buildings and factories must make water conservation plan and all wastewater should be treated and reused. Groundwater development is limited by permit system too. The next step is to make stricter laws to protect water resources and the water environment. Water resources are viewed as an essential factor for development.

4 The Methods to Balance Water Supply and Water Demand in Daly

4.1 Researching the interchange between groundwater and surface water

There is a close interaction between surface and groundwater systems in the Daly River catchment.   

During the almost rainless dry season from May to December, the base flow is sourced from groundwater discharge. This base flow is vital to the character and composition of in-stream and near-stream ecosystems (Hatton & Evans, 1998).

The Daly River is a perennial or permanently flowing river and the dry season flow within it can be largely attributed to a number of springs emanating from aquifers in the Daly basin (Water Resources Branch, 1975). Groundwater discharge also provides an important permanent flow, particularly during the dry season, in the tributaries of the Daly River such as the Katherine, Flora, Fergusson, Edith, Douglas, King and FishRivers and Chilling, Green Ant and Seventeen Mile Creeks.

4.2 Relationship between water and ecosystem

Because there is a close relationship between wildlife, vegetation and aquatic ecosystems and groundwater, its allocation must be planned carefully.

Reduced groundwater recharge will affect aquatic ecosystems, wildlife and riparian vegetation dependent on groundwater discharge, a key ecological feature of the Daly Basin. Loss of vegetation cover affects the recharge of groundwater resources. We can expect that replacement of savannah woodland with cleared land will increase overall catchment runoff, amplify flood events, and increase soil loss and therefore sedimentation (Erskine et al. 2003).

Several vegetation types need groundwater. Hatton and Evans (1998) considered that there was evidence that monsoon rainforests, paperbark swamps and tropical woodlands are dependent on groundwater in the dry season. Groundwater is clearly critical for spring-fed rainforests (Liddle and Scott 2003). Groundwater is also important for wetland hydrology in the Daly, with most wetlands in groundwater discharge areas (Begg et al. 2001).

4.3 The priority for water resources development

Daly Region think about environmental and cultural use of water in high weight compared with that in public, rural stock and domestic, industry, agriculture and aquaculture, which is shown in Table 3.

Table 3     The water allocation weight

5 Conclusions

In both Hebei Province and the Daly Region, work is being undertaken to improve the reasonable and sustainable use and allocation of their water resources. With the similar climate and differing social and economic status, the two regions can gain

practical experience in the management and control of water resources.

There are some lessons that can be shared and absorbed by both Hebei Province and Daly Region with regard to groundwater allocation.

For Hebei province:

l         water allocation for differing uses should not impact on other uses;

l         the total amount of water used is within the combined capacities of rivers and aquifers to sustain all uses;

l         the relationship between surface water and groundwater should be investigated;

l         healthy aquatic ecosystems provide tangible economic and social benefits  and environmental water use should be a priority;

l         water resources should be managed in an integrated manner; and

l         public participation is a very important factor.

The Daly Region can draw lessons from the groundwater development process that has taken place in Hebei Province. Groundwater and surface water must be managed in a manner that fully recognises their interconnection.

Furthermore, both regions should strengthen research in water right allocation, especially in initial water right allocation.

Reference

[1]      Bauer, F.H. (1964) Historical Geography of White Settlement in Part of Northern Australia, Part 2: The Katherine-Darwin Region. Divisional Report No. 64/1, Division of Land Research and Regional Survey, commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Canberra.

[2]      Chappell J & Bardsley K 1985. Hydrology of the lower Daly River, Northern Territory. Australian National University North Australia Research Unit Monograph, Darwin.

[3]      Christian CS & Stewart GA 1953. General report on survey of Katherine-Darwin region, 1946. CSIRO Land Research Series No. 1, CSIRO, Melbourne.

[4]      Erskine WD 1994a. Sand slugs generated by catastrophic floods on the Goulburn River, New South Wales. In Variability in stream erosion and sediment transport, eds LJ Olive, RJ Loughran & JA Kesby, International Association of Hydrological Sciences Publication 224, IAHS, Wallingford, 143–151.

[5]      Erskine WD 1996a. Response and recovery of a sand-bed stream to a catastrophic flood. Zeitschriche für Geomorphologie 40 (3), 359–383.

[6]      Erskine WD & Livingstone EA 1999. In-channel benches: the role of floods in their formation and destruction on bedrock-confined rivers. In Varieties of fluvial forms, eds A Miller & A Gupta, John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, 445–475.

[7]      Erskine WD, Terrazzolo N & Warner RF 1999. River rehabilitation from the hydro-geomorphic impacts of a large hydro-electric power project: Snowy River, Australia. Regulated Rivers: Research & Management 15, 3–24.

[8]      Fitzpatrick EA 1965. Climate of the Tipperary area. In General report on lands of the Tipperary area, Northern Australia, 1961, eds NH Speck, RL Wright, RHM van de Graaff, EA Fitzpatrick, JA Mabbutt & GA Stewart, CSIRO Land Research Series 13, CSIRO, Melbourne, 39–52.

[9]      Fu Chengfeng. Analysis of the on –channal Diversion of the middle South –to-North Transfer, South-to-North Water Transfers and Water Science & Technology, Vol.3 No.5, 2005

[10]  Hebei Water Resources Bulletin 2003, Hebei Water Resources Department

[11]  Hebei Water Resources Evaluation 2003, Hebei Water Resources Department

[12]  Jolly P 1984. Douglas/Daly groundwater resource investigations 1981–1983. Water Division, NT Department of Transport and Works Report No. 8/1984, Darwin.

[13]  Jolly P 2001. Daly River catchment water balance. NT Department of Infrastructure Planning and Environment, Natural Resources Division Report 10/2002, Darwin.

[14]  Jolly P 2002. Water balance for the Daly River catchment, Northern Territory, Australia. Balancing the Groundwater Budget Conference, Darwin, 12–17 May 2002. Paper. Published on CD-Rom.

[15]  Liddle, D.T and Scott, B.K. (2003). Recovery Plan for Darwin Palm (Ptychosperma bleeseri) in the Northern Territory of Australia, 2004-2008. Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Environment, Darwin.

[16]  Mollah WS, De Launey W & Haynes MA 1991. Long-term characteristics of seasonal rainfall at Katherine, Northern Territory. Australian Geographical Studies 29, 71–92.

[17]  Morrison, R.E. (1970) Water Resources of the Daly River Basin – A Study of a proposed Dam at M.t Nancar. Project for Degree of Master of Engineering Science in Water Engineering, The University of New South Wales (unpubl).

[18]  Woodroffe, C.D., Chappell, J.M.A., Thom, B.G. and Wallensky, E. (1986) Geomorphological Dynamics and Evolution of the South Alligator Tidal River and Plains, Northern Territory. Mangrove Monograph No. 3,Australian National University, North Australia Research Unit (NARU), Darwin.

[19]  NT Bureau of Meteorology (1997) Climatological Summary for Pine Creek, Douglas River, Mango Farm (Daly River) and Katherine (Aero) (unpubl.).

[20]  Slatyer RO 1960. Agricultural climatology of the Katherine area, NT.CSIRO Div. Land Res. & Reg. Survey Tech. Paper No. 13, CSIRO, Melbourne.

[21]    Townsend S, Gell P, Bickford S, Tibby J, Croome R, Przyylska M, Padovan A & Metcalfe R 2002. Periphyton and phytoplankton response to reduced dry season flows in the Daly River. Final Milestone Report for Project ID 22963. NT Department of Infrastructure Planning and Environment, Darwin.