Drawdown changes affected by flow rate and location of pumping wells near a river

Riverside groundwater exploitation is one of the main means of utilizing groundwater resources. This paper describes the impact of drawdown conditions with changes in the river flow and pumping well locations, and analyzes the interaction between the groundwater and surface water. Based on long-term hydrological gauging data, abundant hydrogeological test data, and the numerical simulation results for a typical well field of the Qinbei Power Plant, this paper presents three different cases of pumping well locations and four different cases of river flow rates. Finally, the abovementioned cases are integrated into 12 extraction groups and the drawdown conditions are calculated for each group. The results show that, for a given set of flow rate conditions, a location set in a recharge zone exhibited the maximum drawdown, while a location in a transition zone had the second-largest drawdown, and a location in a discharge zone had the minimum drawdown. In addition, assuming the same locations for the pumping wells, the drawdown change from small to large corresponded to 100%, 75%, 50%, and 25% of the original flow. This paper provides a foundation for future study of the calculation of riverside groundwater exploration with changes in the flow rate and well locations.