Modelling of land subsidence induced by ground water withdrawal using GPS

Studies on the modeling of land subsidence induced by ground-water withdrawal have received great interest by many researchers such as Chrzanowski (1989), Strange (1988), and others. However, most of the researchers utilized conventional method in obtaining the useful information to model the subsidence. There are a few studies that have been made to obtain the information using the Global Positioning System supplemented with terrestrial geodetic (Chrzanowski, 1989). A study on land subsidence induced by ground water withdrawal will be carried out in the Kota Bahru area which is located in the North East of the Peninsular Malaysia. The size of the study area is approximately 40 km x 40 km. Water-supply for this town is mainly derived from underground water resources. Extensive ground water withdrawal activity has occurred in this area. As a consequence, land subsidence occurrence induced by continuos groundwater withdrawal far a long period in this area may posed a serious problem in the future. The aim of this study is to model the land subsidence using high precision GPS technique. In this paper, some preliminary results are presented with a particular focus on the planning and field operation aspects.