Groundwater resources and ecological environment in Songhua River-Liaohe River Basin

The Songhua River-Liaohe River Basin is an important commodity grain base in China, and groundwater resources play an important role in maintaining China's food security. In 2019, the amount of groundwater resources in Songliao Basin was 797.31×10⁸ m³, and the exploitation amount of groundwater was 276.4×10⁸ m³. Groundwater in Songliao River Basin is faced with resource, environmental and ecological problems such as local shortage of water resources, continuous decline of local water level, aggravation of "three nitrogen" pollution, and wetland shrinkage, land desertification, salinization etc. Based on the analysis of the driving factors of these problems, the main driving force is summarized as the increase of temperature leading to the expansion of rice suitable area, the change of land use pattern, and the substantial increase of cultivated land area, especially paddy field area, resulting in excessive exploitation of groundwater and aggravation of groundwater surface source pollution. The construction of a large number of reservoirs led to the reduction of river runoff in arid and water shortage areas, the lack of groundwater recharge sources, the decline of groundwater supply capacity and the decline of groundwater level. In view of these problems, some suggestions are put forward, including investigation and monitoring of water resources, research on the rational allocation of water resources, joint dispatching of surface water and groundwater, construction of water resources management system, rigid restriction of the system, and adjusting the agricultural planting structure, promoting water-saving irrigation and improving water resources utilization efficiency.