Numerical simulation of groundwater flow and land deformation due to groundwater pumping in cross-anisotropic layered aquifer system

•Drawdown and land deformation due to pumping is formulated.•Larger Young’s modulus influences both dewatering and deformation control.•Initial saturated hydraulic conductivity has great effects on the hydraulic head.•Permeability plays an important role in causing the Noordbergum and Rhade effect.

In a natural aquifer, the aquifer properties are complicated, which normally vary with aquifer depth and geographic characteristics. Most previous studies have been limited to the case of isotropic aquifer with uniform characteristics. In the proposed model, the fully coupled ground water flow and land deformation due to groundwater pumping in cross-anisotropic aquifer system is used to analyze and predict. Based on this model, pumping-recovery tests in various conditions are numerically simulated to reveal the effects of cross-anisotropic aquifer behavior on hydraulic head and land deformation. Finally, the proposed method is applied to a project in Shanghai of China due to pumping of groundwater predicted. Comparing the calculated results with the measured field values indicates that the methods can be a useful tool for designing groundwater pumping projects.