CHARACTERISTICS OF SOIL WATER MOVEMENTS AND WATER TABLE AT THE LEIZHOU PENINSULA, GUANGDONG PROVINCE, CHINA - Advances in Geosciences - page 219

CHARACTERISTICS OF SOIL WATER MOVEMENTS AND
WATER TABLE AT THE LEIZHOU PENINSULA,
GUANGDONG PROVINCE, CHINA
CHANGYUAN TANG ∗,¶ ,JUN-HONGCHEN † ,
AKIHIKO KONDO ‡ and YINTAO LU §
∗ Faculty of Horticulture, Chiba University, Chiba Prefecture, Japan
† Guangzhou Institute of Geography, Guangzhou, China
‡ Center for Environmental Remote Sensing, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan
§ Graduate School of Science and Technology, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan
¶ [e-mail]
Knowledge of the mechanisms of water at tropical red soil is the key to under-
stand the hydrological cycle in south part of China. In order to study water
infiltration and water table responding to rainfall events, field experiments were
conducted in the Leizhou Peninsula, China, since June 2000. TDRs were set
at 10, 30, 60, 100, and 200 cm in depth, respectively. Water table and rainfall
were also measured at the same time. All items were recorded automatically at
the intervals of 10 min. Results show that (1) there is yearly periodic variation
of groundwater table at the Leizhou Peninsula, with an ascending period from
about June to October, lasting for 90-100 days, and descending period during
other times; (2) in the recharging area, the variation of groundwater table has
close relationship with rainfall, of which during ascending period there is an
obviously positively interrelationship between accumulated ascending-range of
groundwater table and accumulated rainfall, and during dry reason with less
rainfall; and (3) soil water infiltration responded rapidly to rainfall events with
a little overland flow. Finally, based on the results water resource development
in the Leizhou Peninsula has been discussed.
1. Introduction
Land surface hydrologic processes play an important role in the global water
cycle. The temporal and spatial distributions of storages and flows within a
catchment depend on the complex interaction of topography, geology, soil
types, land use and the variability of meteorological factors.
Knowledge of the factors controlling storage and movement of water in
the soil is important in order to understand a wide range of processes of
hydrological importance. The initial soil moisture conditions significantly
influence the runoff volumes produced during a heavy precipitation but long
records of these measurements are not easy to obtain especially in rough
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