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The Badain Jaran Desert (BJD) in China is a desert with impressive sand dunes and a groundwater situation that has attracted numerous researchers. This paper gives an overview of the mysteries of groundwater in the BJD that are exhibited as five key problems identified in previous studies. These problems relate to the origin of the groundwater, the hydrological connection between the BJD and the Heihe River Basin (HRB), the infiltration recharge, the lake-groundwater interactions, and the features of stable isotope analyses. The existing controversial analyses and hypotheses have caused debate and have hindered effective water resources management in the region. In recent years, these problems have been partly addressed by additional surveys. It has been revealed that the Quaternary sandy sediments and Neogene-Cretaceous sandstones form a thick aquifer system in the BJD. Groundwater flow at the regional scale is dominated by a significant difference in water levels between the surrounding mountains and lowlands at the western and northern edges. Discharge of groundwater from the BJD to the downstream HRB occurs according to the regional flow. Seasonal fluctuations of the water level in lakes are less than 0.5 m due to the quasi-steady groundwater discharge. The magnitude of infiltration recharge is still highly uncertain because significant limitations existed in previous studies. The evaporation effect may be the key to interpreting the anomalous negative deuterium-excess in the BJD groundwater. Further investigations are expected to reveal the hydrogeological conditions in more detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ordos Basin is one of the most intensively studied groundwater basins in China. The Ordos Plateau, located in the north part of the Ordos Basin, is ideal to study the pattern of regional groundwater circulation induced by water-table undulations due to the wavy topography and the relatively simple aquifer systems with macroscopically homogeneous sandstone. In catchments located near the first-order divide, the water table is found to be a subdued replica of the topography, and the nonclosed water-table contours in topographic highs of a catchment are indicative of regional groundwater outflow to other catchments. In topographic lows, groundwater-fed lakes/rivers, topography-driven flowing wells, water-loving and/or salt-tolerant vegetation, and soap holes are all indicative of discharge areas. In discharge areas, although groundwater inflow from recharge areas is relatively stable, seasonal variations in groundwater recharge and evapotranspiration lead to significant seasonal fluctuations in the water table, which can be used to estimate groundwater inflow and evapotranspiration rates based on water balance at different stages of water-table change. In the lowest reaches of a complex basin, superposition of local flow systems on regional flow systems has been identified based on groundwater samples collected from wells with different depths and geophysical measurements of apparent resistivity, both of which can be used for characterizing groundwater flow systems. This study enhances understanding of the pattern of regional groundwater circulation in the Ordos Plateau, and also tests the  effectiveness of methods for groundwater flow-system characterization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theory of regional groundwater flow is critical for explaining heat transport by moving groundwater in basins. Domenico and Palciauskas's () pioneering study on convective heat transport in a simple basin assumed that convection has a small influence on redistributing groundwater temperature. Moreover, there has been no research focused on the temperature distribution around stagnation zones among flow systems. In this paper, the temperature distribution in the simple basin is reexamined and that in a complex basin with nested flow systems is explored. In both basins, compared to the temperature distribution due to conduction, convection leads to a lower temperature in most parts of the basin except for a small part near the discharge area. There is a high-temperature anomaly around the basin-bottom stagnation point where two flow systems converge due to a low degree of convection and a long travel distance, but there is no anomaly around the basin-bottom stagnation point where two flow systems diverge. In the complex basin, there are also high-temperature anomalies around internal stagnation points. Temperature around internal stagnation points could be very high when they are close to the basin bottom, for example, due to the small permeability anisotropy ratio. The temperature distribution revealed in this study could be valuable when using heat as a tracer to identify the pattern of groundwater flow in large-scale basins. Domenico PA, Palciauskas VV (1973) Theoretical analysis of forced convective heat transfer in regional groundwater flow. Geological Society of America Bulletin 84:3803-3814 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analytical studies on release/capture zones are often limited to a uniform background groundwater flow. In fact, for basin-scale problems, the undulating water table would lead to the development of hierarchically nested flow systems, which are more complex than a uniform flow. Under the premise that the water table is a replica of undulating topography and hardly influenced by wells, an analytical solution of hydraulic head is derived for a two-dimensional cross section of a drainage basin with horizontal injection/pumping wells. Based on the analytical solution, distributions of hydraulic head, stagnation points and flow systems (including release/capture zones) are explored. The superposition of injection/pumping wells onto the background flow field leads to the development of new internal stagnation points and new flow systems (including release/capture zones). Generally speaking, the existence of n injection/pumping wells would result in up to n new internal stagnation points and up to 2 n new flow systems (including release/capture zones). The analytical study presented, which integrates traditional well hydraulics with the theory of regional groundwater flow, is useful in understanding basin-scale groundwater flow influenced by human activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]