The Impact of Groundwater Over-Extraction on Land Subsidence and Seismic Risk

The current study examines how groundwater over-exploitation contributes to land subsidence and represents a risk for triggering increased seismicity. Depletion of groundwater is primarily driven by demand from agriculture, industry, and urban needs, and is not only a major contributor to land subsidence but also creates a change in stress that can increase seismicity risk in the shallow crustal layer. These anthropogenic activities will increase not only release seismicity risk but also create direct threats to life and property through liquefaction processes at urban sites, as well as instability of slopes, and other site-specific issues. The study takes a multi-disciplinary approach accounting for hydrology, soil characterization, as well as land subsidence remote sensing monitoring such as Satellite InSAR and GPS. The historical groundwater extraction characterization will show a clear trend in aquifer depletion for the case studies provided for the areas of heavy groundwater use. For the case studies presented in areas of heavy groundwater extraction, land subsidence rates of millimeters to several centimeters per year are related to simply over-extraction of shallow aquifers with consideration for seismicity risk. The land subsidence changes this response to seismicity by increasing the ground shaking, along with a direct threat to life and potential damage, that groundwater extraction poses to human life and property.

کلیدواژه ها:

Groundwater over-extraction ، Land subsidence ، Seismic risk ، Aquifer depletion