The Application Effects and Exploitation Capacity of Karst Underground Water Resources in Southwest China
西南岩溶地下水资源开发利用效应与潜力分析

There are about 780,000 km2 karst areas in southwest China, which are composed of two types of underground water systems, i.e., the bare karst water system and the covered-buried karst water system. With a lot of rainfall and the well developed underground karst forms, there exist abundant karst underground water resources in southwest China. In the geological survey area of 430,000 km2, the natural resources of underground water amount to some 1762.82×108 m3/a, and the allowed exploiting quantity of underground water reaches 615.70×108 m3/a. In recent years, with the performance of the hydrogeological survey, the exploitation of the underground river, epi-karst water and karst water in storing water tectonics has made an important advance and created evident economic and ecological effects. However, due to the difficult exploitation conditions of karst water and the relatively backward regional economy, the exploiting degree of the karst underground water in Southwest China is on the whole rather low. So far, the total exploiting quantity is 98.32×108 m3/a, only occupying 15.97% of the allowed exploiting quantity. There remains an exploiting capacity of the karst underground water resources for about 517.38×108 m3/a.