Earth Science Frontiers ›› 2026, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (1): 179-192.DOI: 10.13745/j.esf.sf.2025.10.22

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Early warning of groundwater pollution in oasis area of Hami Basin

JIANG Feng1,2,3(), ZHOU Jinlong1,2,3,*(), ZHOU Yinzhu4, LIU Jiangtao4, ZENG Yanyan1,2,3, LIU Yu1,2,3, DING Qizhen1,2,3   

  1. 1. College of Water Conservancy and Civil Engineering, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urumqi 830052, China
    2. Xinjiang Hydrology and Water Resources Engineering Research Center, Urumqi 830052, China
    3. Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Hydraulic Engineering Security and Water Disasters Prevention, Urumqi 830052, China
    4. Center for Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology, China Geological Survey, Tianjin 300304, China
  • Received:2025-05-30 Revised:2025-08-31 Online:2026-01-25 Published:2025-11-10

Abstract:

Early warning of groundwater pollution is of critical importance for identifying key prevention and control areas and ensuring the safety of groundwater resources. Using the oasis area of the Hami Basin in Xinjiang as a case study, a comprehensive evaluation system for pollution risk was constructed, covering the inherent vulnerability, pollution load, and functional value of groundwater. The reasonableness of the model was verified through sensitivity analysis. Subsequently, the entropy weight TOPSIS method was used to evaluate the current groundwater quality status, and the trend in water quality change was analyzed using data from typical monitoring wells. A game theory-based comprehensive weighting method was then introduced to integrate the three indicators—water quality status, change trend, and pollution risk—for early warning level classification. The results show that: 1) The risk of groundwater pollution in the study area is generally low, with higher-risk and high-risk areas accounting for only 9.7%. The high-risk areas are characterized by a vadose zone with lithology dominated by sand and gravel, which has strong permeability, coupled with intensive human activities, high-intensity groundwater exploitation, and a combination of non-point and point source pollution. 2) The assessment of water quality status shows that Class IV and Class V water account for 10.1%, indicating that groundwater quality is mainly affected by a combination of hydrogeological conditions and human activities. The overall trend of groundwater quality is improving, with areas of deterioration accounting for only 5.4%. Industrial and agricultural pollution along with domestic sewage discharge were the main driving factors for deterioration. 3) The early warning levels are dominated by “no warning” and “light warning”, with high and heavy warning areas comprising 5.3%. These high-level warning areas were categorized into natural factor-dominated, human activity-dominated, and compound influence-dominated types. The groundwater pollution early warning method developed in this study, which is based on the game theory-based comprehensive weighting, effectively improved the objectivity and spatial continuity of the early warning classification, and can provide a theoretical basis and methodological support for regional groundwater pollution prevention and control zoning, as well as the identification of key remediation areas.

Key words: groundwater pollution warning, pollution risk, vulnerability, game theory, Hami Basin, Xinjiang

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