Abstract:

Based on the latest water-level data in 2011 and 2012，a groundwater numerical model including unconfined aquifer
and confined aquifer for Minqin oasis was established with Feflow software，which can simulate the regional groundwater
changes under transient conditions. The numerical model was used to predict future changes in groundwater level in the next
five years to ten years. The result indicates that a series of comprehensive measures have curbed the trend of drawdown of
groundwater level effectively under current water resources management conditions. But in the next 5 to 10 years，groundwater
levels in the Minqin oasis will be in a continuous drawdown trend with low rate. The current groundwater funnel areas in the
upstream district expand，but those distributions in the downstream district shrinks on account of the complement of water form
Qingtu Lake. But as groundwater depth in the study area increases，a new groundwater funnel turns up in Hongshaliang village.
In addition，the local plant cannot survive until the groundwater depth is less than 15 meters. The percentage of the area where
groundwater depth is less than 15 decreases year by year and area in which groundwater depth is less than 10 meters is shrinkage
on a large scale.

Key words: seepage, unconfined aquifer-confined aquifer, groundwater dynamics, Feflow, numerical simulation