Water and salt migration properties are important in many disciplines, including engineering construction, natural disaster prevention, agricultural irrigation and wastewater disposal. Relevant research into unsaturated loess caters to the development needs of the cities located on it. The objective of this study is to identify the water flow dynamics and consequent salt migration and redistribution (as well as their influence on microstructure alteration of the soil) during long-term seepage in unsaturated loess. In this experimental study, a long-term and one-dimensional seepage simulation test is conducted in a loess column. Probes are buried at different depths along the vertical profile to monitor and record the variations of volume water content and electrical conductivity. After the seepage test, soils at different depths are analyzed with different methods to make further investigation, including use of a pressure-plate apparatus to obtain soil-water characteristic curves, ion chromatography to determine the soluble salt components, and scanning electron microscopy to observe the microstructure changes. Good consistency between the different tests is obtained. Based on those results, the water and salt migration patterns and their influence on loess are analyzed and concluded.

Fissures and paleosols are important factors affecting the slope stability of loess. However, the mechanism of water and air migration in the unsaturated zone of loess induced by fissures and paleosols remains unclear. In this study, discontinuous irrigation experiments were conducted using a sand tank and Marriott bottle. The soil- water content (SWC) patterns and pressure differences, under the influence of fissures and paleosols, were observed using the EC-5 moisture sensor and MPXV5010DP differential pressure sensor. The results showed that the fissures are the dominant channels of water infiltration and air exchange, while paleosols and closed soil boundary conditions can significantly impede the downward transport of water and air. During irrigation, SWC near the fissure and paleosol increased rapidly from less than 10–30%, reaching a maximum value of 35% above the paleosol. On the other hand, the maximum pressure difference in the upper part of the paleosol exceeded 1,000 Pa, which is significantly higher than that observed in the lower part. The stability of soil around fissures and paleosols decreased sharply due to high SWC and pressure differences, which may induce landslides after long-term irrigation. This study provides a theoretical basis for revealing the formation mechanism of landslides in loess irrigation areas and preventing landslide disasters.

The hypothesis that abnormal fluid pressure is generated in basins under tectonic compression is tested. The study site, between the Main Karakoram Thrust (MKT), Main Mantle Thrust (MMT), Main Central Thrust (MCT), Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) and Salt Range Thrust (SRT) in northwest Pakistan, is experiencing a tectonic compression of 90 MPa. The Peshawar basin is a broad, oval depression comprising a thick sequence of lacustrine, deltaic and fluvial sediments overlain by loess and alluvial deposits dated at 2.8–0.6 Ma. It is surrounded by the Precambrian and Tertiary intrusive and metamorphic rocks on the north and sedimentary rocks of Paleogene and Neogene to the south. The basin was divided into four hydrostratigraphic units for numerical simulations using the three-dimensional finite-element model FEMWATER within groundwater modeling system (GMS) ver. 5.1. Simulated pressure head data have been compared with the field measurements of hydraulic heads. Transient simulations indicate that topography alone is not sufficient to induce the pressure heads observed in the field, generating consistently positive residuals 0.98–2.90 m over the topography-driven flow. The residuals disappeared after inclusion of the elastic properties of the four hydrostratigraphic units in the model, suggesting the effect of tectonic compression.

Water sustainability is a major challenge on the Loess Plateau of China, since the drying of soil and loss of surface water is threatening regional water security. Fundamental to effective water management is an understanding of groundwater recharge mechanisms. Based on a time series of stable isotopes data for precipitation, surface water and groundwater, the groundwater recharge ratios and water transmission times were quantitatively identified for the studied region. The results showed that groundwater discharge to surface water was a common phenomenon during the dry and wet seasons. However, groundwater could also be recharged by precipitation and surface water during specific months when experiencing large precipitation events. Over shorter time scales (<1 year), groundwater was mainly recharged by surface water, while the groundwater recharge ratio from rainfall during the wet season was higher than that from melting snow during the dry season. Over longer time scales (>1 year), precipitation was the primary recharge source of groundwater in small watersheds due to the general flow direction of groundwater to surface water. Groundwater recharge by precipitation mostly occurred through a combination of piston flow and preferential flow, where preferential flow was the primary recharge mechanism for groundwater replenished by precipitation in this region. Surface water could quickly recharge groundwater by lateral flow through fractures in the aquifer and vertical piston flow. These findings could, therefore, be used to provide a reference for the utilization and protection of groundwater resources in the small watersheds of the loess hilly regions of the Loess Plateau.

Assessing groundwater recharge characteristics (recharge rate, history, mechanisms (piston and preferential flow)) and groundwater age in arid and semi-arid environments remains a difficult but important research frontier. Such assessments are particularly important when the unsaturated zone (UZ) is thick and the recharge rate is limited. This study combined evaluations of the thick UZ with those of the saturated zone and used multiple tracers, such as Cl, NO₃, Br, ²H, ¹⁸O, ¹³C, ³H and ¹⁴C, to study groundwater recharge characteristics in an integrated loess tableland in the Loess Plateau, China, where precipitation infiltration is the only recharge source for shallow groundwater. The results indicate that diffuse recharge beneath crops, as the main land use of the study area, is 55–71 mm yr⁻¹ based on the chloride mass balance of soil profiles. The length of time required for annual precipitation to reach the water table is 160–400 yrs. The groundwater is all pre-modern water and paleowater, with corrected ¹⁴C age ranging from 136 to 23,412 yrs. Most of the water that eventually becomes recharge originally infiltrated in July–September. The Cl and NO₃ contents in the upper UZ are considerably higher than those in the deep UZ and shallow groundwater because of recent human activities. The shallow groundwater has not been in hydraulic equilibrium with present near-surface boundary conditions. The homogeneous material of the UZ and relatively old groundwater age imply that piston flow is the dominant recharge mechanism for the shallow groundwater in the tableland.