China

GROUNDWATER RESOURCE EVALUATION IN NORTH CHINA PLAIN

Agencies: UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME, with executing agency UNITED NATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TECHNICAL CO-OPERATION FOR DEVELOPMENT, and government counterpart agency INSTITUTE OF HYDROGEOLOGY AND ENGINEERING GEOLOGY, MINISTRY OF GEOLOGY

J.Karanjac worked as Chief Technical Adviser on the UNDP-financed project coded CPR/81/036. The technical assistance project, which was operational between 1982 and 1986, had the following immediate objectives:

to study and evaluate the natural recharge of shallow groundwater in selected areas in order to gain experience which could be extrapolated over other areas within the North China Plain;
to study and evaluate the natural recharge of shallow ground water under controlled conditions in experimental sites and in- door laboratories, in order to obtain a better understanding of influence of various meteorological, agricultural and soil factors on natural recharge of shallow aquifers.

J.Karanjac coordinated the project activities, specified the equipment and instruments for experimental field sites (neutron meters, tensiometers, piezometers, gypsum blocks, pressure transducers, etc.), trained the staff of Institute of Hydrogeology and Engineering Geology in using personal computers, data processing and modeling. He was responsible for the overall performance of the project.

As one of project outputs, a mathematical model of Nangong County was created as a training tool to Chinese hydrogeologists. The software used for modeling was MODFLOW which was just released by the U.S. Geological Survey (1984).