Effects of various land utilization types on groundwater at different temporal scales: a case study of Huocheng plain, Xinjiang, China

Different land utilization types have unignorable impacts on adjacent aquifers, so studying the effects of varying land utilization types on groundwater balance and groundwater table in arid and semi-arid areas is crucial to facilitate the rational development of territorial space and groundwater resource management. This study investigated the relationship between land utilization type variations and groundwater dynamics from spatial and temporal scales in Huocheng plain, Xinjiang, China, via taking advantage of different land utilization maps provided by remote sensing techniques in 1990, 2000, and 2015. Based on the analysis of results, the findings can be summarized as follows. First, the cultivated and construction land has expanded significantly in the past 25 years. The migration of the regional center of cultivated land was insignificant, as it is still located almost in the center of the entire study area. However, the transfer span of the location center of construction land was more prominent, and its moving direction was mainly from south to northeast, directly affecting the groundwater balance state and groundwater table. Second, the total amount of groundwater storage exhibited a remarkable reduction, from a recharge in 1990 to a continuous discharge in 2000–2015, during which the total recharge and discharge had both continuously declined. Meanwhile, recharging and discharging elements were also changed profoundly as less groundwater recharges from ambient aqueous environments and more groundwater extraction. Thus, human activities were the fundamental driving terms causing the changes in groundwater sources. Third, the groundwater table gradually and continuously dropped from south to northeast in the study area over time. The drawdown of spatially averaged groundwater tables was positively correlated with construction and cultivated area extension. In addition, compared to the former literature, this study offers an alternative approach for groundwater protection and optimization of territorial space development and utilization in arid and semi-arid areas.