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The South-to-North Water Diversion Project in China is the world's largest water transfer project, aiming to address water shortages in northern China by channeling water from the water-rich southern regions. Water resources in Tianjin have long been in severe deficit, with excessive groundwater extraction causing significant surface subsidence, negatively impacting urban infrastructure and economic development. As a result, Tianjin has become a key beneficiary of this water diversion project. To investigate the current situation of surface subsidence, we obtained the vertical displacement time series from 21 GNSS stations across Tianjin from 2011 to 2021 and analyzed overall subsidence changes and rehabilitation status. Results indicate that no clear surface subsidence was observed in the northern regions of Tianjin due to groundwater extraction mainly in unconfined aquifers. The southwestern region experienced the most significant surface subsidence due to overexploitation of deep groundwater, with peak cumulative subsidence exceeding 600 mm during the study period. The central, eastern, and southeastern coastal regions also faced severe surface subsidence with cumulative amounts ranging from 100 mm to 400 mm. The alleviation of subsidence predominantly benefits from continuous water supply from the South to North Water Diversion Project, which resulted in most stations significantly slowing down or even stabilizing their settlement rates after 2018. Therefore, the South-to-North Water Diversion Project plays a crucial role in addressing the persistent water resource shortage and mitigating long-term surface subsidence in Tianjin by ensuring a continuous water supply and significantly reducing the need for groundwater extraction. Our findings indicate positive measures, such as water diversion projects and water management policies, can serve as valuable references for other regions around the world facing similar water scarcity and groundwater overexploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In all ground fissures in Beijing, Gaoliying Ground Fissure has characteristics of highly activity, and it cause serious damages on constructoins. With the distribution as well as the development of land subsidence and the change of the groundwater level, a series of work has been conducted to explain the mechanism of the formation of Gaoliying Ground Fissure. For example, field damage investigations and trench observations were used to define the affected distance of ground fissure; three-dimensional deformation was monitored to determine active characteristic of ground fissure. This paper points out that Gaoliying ground fissure is controlled by Huangzhuang-Gaoliying Fault, which mainly moves in the vertical direction. The rapid decrease of the ground water level greatly increases the development of ground fissure. The distance of damaged zones affected by ground fissure in the hanging-wall of the fault reaches 49.5m, and the distance of damaged zones in the footwall of the fault is 17.5 m. A suggested safety distance of type-one and type-two buildings is 100 m. For type-three buildings, the suggested safety distance is 80 m.

The development and utilization of groundwater in Cangzhou area has led to a series of environmental and geological problems such as groundwater-level declines and land subsidence. In order to alleviate the impact of groundwater abstraction on geological environment, a calibrated, transient groundwater numerical model of the Cangzhou area was developed using Processing Modflow. Then four kinds of groundwater exploitation schemes were designed and the groundwater flow fields for different schemes in the next 50 years were simulated and predicted. By comparing and analyzing the variation of the water levels in the mining layers and the variation of groundwater storage, the optimal groundwater extraction scheme was determined.