Over the last 40 years, declining spring water flow rates have become a typical feature of karst springs in Northern China. Wavelet analysis, the Mann-Kendall trend test and the mutation test were used to analyze dynamic monitoring data of groundwater levels and atmospheric precipitation in the Jinan karst spring area, from 1956 to 2013, to study hydrological responses to atmospheric precipitation over one-year periods. Results from this analysis show that: (1) Atmospheric precipitation and the spring water level displayed multi-scale change characteristics, having two very similar cycles of change of 16 and 12 years. This finding shows that atmospheric precipitation generates a direct impact on the level of spring water. (2) From 1956 to 2013, the groundwater level in the Jinan spring area had a significant downward trend (0.65 m/10a). Precipitation recorded an increasing trend (12.65 mm/10a), however this was not significant. The weight of the influencing factors of the spring dynamic therefore changed due to the influence of human factors. (3) A mutation of atmospheric precipitation occurred in 1999, after which annual precipitation increased. Results for the mutation of the groundwater level showed an initial change in 1967. After this change the water level continued to decrease before rapidly increasing after 2004. The future trend of the spring water level should be maintained with consistent precipitation (having an upward trend), indicating that atmospheric precipitation is not the only factor affecting the dynamics of the spring. (4) Different periods were identified on the multiple regression model. The main influencing factors on groundwater level over the past 58 years were identified as a transition from precipitation to artificial mining. These results also validate the suitability and reliability of using wavelet analysis and the Mann-Kendall test method to study groundwater dynamics; these results provide a reference for the future protection of the Jinan City spring.

Prevention and remediation strategies for groundwater pollution can be successfully carried out if the location, concentration, and release history of contaminants can be accurately identified. This, however, presents a challenge due to complex groundwater systems. To address this issue, a simulation-optimization (S/O) model by integrating MODFLOW and MT3DMS into a shuffled complex evolution (SCE-UA) optimization algorithm was proposed; this coupled model can identify the unknown groundwater pollution source characteristics. Moreover, the Grids Traversal algorithm was used for automatically searching all possible combinations of pollution source location. The performance of the proposed S/O model was tested by three hypothetical scenarios with various combinations of mixed situations (i.e., single and multiple pollution source locations, known and unknown pollution source locations, steady-state flow and transient flow). The field measurement errors was additionally considered and analyzed. Our results showed that this proposed S/O model performed reasonably well. The identified locations and concentrations of contaminants fairly matched with the imposed inputs with average normalized deviations less than 1% after sufficient generations. We further assessed the impact of generation number on the performance of the S/O model. The performance could be significantly improved by increasing generation number, which yet resulted in a heavy computational burden. Furthermore, the proposed S/O model performed more efficiently and robustly than the traditionally used artificial neural network (ANN)-based model. This is due to the internal linkage of numerical simulation in the S/O model that promotes the data exchange from external files to programming variables. This new model allows for solving the source-identification problems considering complex conditions, and thus for providing a platform for groundwater pollution prevention and management.

Pore water in inland plain areas, generally having poor water quality, contain complex hydrochemical properties. In order to examine groundwater chemical composition formation characteristics, groundwater in the Jiyang area of Lubei Plain was studied using stratified monitoring of drilling, analysis of water level and water quality, isotope analysis, ion ratio coefficient and isothermal adsorption experiments, hydrochemical characteristics, and analysis of variations in different shallow depths. Results show that: (1) Numerous hydrochemistry types are present in the diving. Along with the direction of groundwater flow, total dissolved solids (TDS) of diving in the study area generally increases and the hydrochemical type changes from the HCO₃ type to the HCO₃·SO₄ type, Cl·HCO₃ type and the Cl·SO₄ type. (2) Shallow brackish water and freshwater in the horizontal direction are alternately distributed, and shallow brackish water is distributed in the area between old channels, showing sporadic spots or bands, whose hydrochemistry type is predominantly Cl·SO₄-Na·Mg·Ca. (3) Affected by the sedimentary environment, hydrodynamic conditions and other factors; diving, middle brackish water and deep freshwater are vertically deposited in the study area. The dynamics of middle brackish water quality are stable due to the sedimentary environment and clay deposits. The hydrochemistry types of middle brackish water are mainly Cl·SO₄-Mg·Na and SO₄·Cl-Na·Mg, while the deep confined water is dominated by HCO₃. (4) The optimal adsorption isotherms of Na⁺, Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ in groundwater from clay, with a thickness raging from 6–112 m, conformed to the Henry equation and the Langmuir equation. The retardation of Na⁺, Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ in groundwater differed with differing depths of the clay deposit. The trend of change in retardation strength correlates strongly with the TDS of groundwater. Groundwater in the inland plain area is affected by complicated hydrogeochemical processes; in addition, leaching, cation exchange, evaporative concentration and clay retardation have an important influence on the horizontal and vertical zonation of groundwater chemical components.

Based on the comprehensive analysis of hydrogeological data of the Dawu water source in Zibo city, the Modflow module in Groundwater Modeling System is used to carry out three-dimensional geological modeling of the Dawu water source, and the flow field model and solute transport model of the Dawu water source are established. Aiming at the problem of groundwater pollution in the key polluted area of the Hougao region—the Dawu water source—the pollutant transport model is established to explore the process of pollution transport. There are many types of groundwater pollutants in the Hougao area. Among them, ammonia nitrogen, chloride, petroleum, and benzene exceed the standard most seriously. In order to facilitate the research, we selected typical pollutants for in-depth study. The ammonia nitrogen is used as the control index of domestic and industrial waste water in the policy documents of pollution emission. It can show the specific situation of industrial waste water and domestic waste water pollution changing with time. Thus, the ammonia nitrogen with a higher exceeding standard is selected as the pollution factor in this simulation. Pollutant transport under the conditions of strong pumping and stop pumping is simulated. It is found that the pollutant is effectively controlled due to the pumping and discharging effects under the action of strong pumping, from 4 to 5 times exceeding the standard to slightly exceeding the standard. However, there is still a trend of migration to the eastern water supply area. After the pumping is stopped, the pollutant quickly migrates to the Xixia centralized water supply area, causing serious pollution to the water supply area. Finally, four other hydraulic interception wells are set up in the 500 m east of Hougao’s four wells to further control the pollutant transport. When hydraulic interception wells and strong pumping wells are used together, the scope of ammonia nitrogen pollution is basically controlled near the interception wells, and it does not continue to spread to the eastern water supply area. The maximum monitoring value of pollution is 0.11 mg/L, which is controlled within the standard limit of three types of groundwater, and the pollutant control effect is the best, providing certain reference for similar pollution control work.