Abstract: The groundwater exploitation potentiality evaluation, a part of the groundwater resources evaluation, is aimed at providing references for the groundwater management, planning and development. Traditional evaluation methods, using single indicator for evaluation, fail to take into account all the factors affecting the groundwater exploitation potential. Thus it is of great importance to develop a more comprehensive evaluation method and theory. The idea, that the spatial distribution and dynamic change of groundwater are not only affected by the socioeconomic development and exploitation technology, but also influenced by selfregulation, agrees with Niche Theory. In this paper, following a discussion on the definition of groundwater niche and its calculation formula and evaluation index system, the groundwater niche calculations, as well as analyses of groundwater niche clustering and exploitation potential were carried out in 9 cities in the Hebei Plain. The results were compared with those obtained using the traditional methods. As the results show, the evaluation method based on Niche Theory ranks the groundwater exploitation potential for the 9 cities, from high to low, as Tangshan, Xingtai, Handan, Baoding, Langfang, Hengshui, Shijiazhuang, Cangzhou and Qinhuangdao. Compared with the traditional methods, the two evaluation approaches yield similar ranking results with the exceptions of Baoding, Qinhuangdao and Langfang. The discrepancy demonstrates that the evaluation method based on Niche Theory, as described in this paper, is more comprehensive, scientific, rational and realistic. We believe Niche Theory will provide a new and may even be a paradigm shift in our approach for the evaluation of groundwater exploitation potentiality.

Key words:  Niche Theory, groundwater niche, groundwater exploitation potential evaluation, Hebei Plain