Analysis of the negative effects of groundwater exploitation on geological environment in Asia

This paper summarizes the negative effects on geological environment caused by groundwater exploitation and its distribution. There are seven main types of the geological environment negative effects, which are generally as follows: (1) Constant decrease of groundwater level is mainly distributed in China (East Asia), India (South Asia), Tajikistan (Central Asia) and Saudi Arabia (West Asia); (2) land subsidence occurs mainly in eastern plains of East Asia and west Siberian Plain of North Asia; (3) seawater intrusion occurs mainly in China, Japan and South Korea in East Asia, Philippines and Indonesia in Southeast Asia, the Indian coastal areas in South Asia; (4) groundwater level decline caused by groundwater exploitation in oil fields; (5) mining collapse is mainly in 50° to 70° north latitude band; (6) the total area of karst collapse in China of East Asia is as much as 197.05 km²; and (7) ground fracture is mainly distributed in the North China Plain, Fenwei Plain and the Yangtze River Delta. Asia can be divided into 6 zones in terms of the geological environment negative effect caused by groundwater exploitation. According to analysis, with the increasing intensity of human activities, geological environment issues become more and more serious, therefore it is vital to control the human activities within the scope of 5×10⁵ people/km² to 9.9×10⁵ people/km² for the effective control of the size of the affected area by geological environment problems.