Numerical simulation of karst groundwater system for discharge prediction and protection design of spring in Fangshan District, Beijing

As the rapid growth of population and social economy, the situation of water resources shortage in Beijing city becomes more and more serious. Karst groundwater in Beijing has great potential for development. The reasonable exploitation of karst groundwater can enhance the water-supply stability of Beijing city. Firstly, the distribution of springs has been investigated in Fangshan, Beijing, and the characteristics of these springs have also been analyzed. Secondly, the hydrogeological conceptual model has been built, based on this, the groundwater flow numerical simulation model was established, and the parameter identification and validation of the model were performed under groundwater level and spring discharge. The results shows that the simulated values of groundwater level and spring discharge are very close to measured values, and the model can be used for groundwater resources evaluation and spring discharge prediction. Finally, a reasonable exploitation design has been developed with three exploitation scenarios considering the spring discharge protection; meanwhile, the quantity of groundwater resources was evaluated in the karst aquifer. The simulation results indicate that different exploitation yields have a significant impact on spring discharge; and the effective measures should be taken to protect the spring discharge.