From the mid-1970s, Crescent Spring’s waterline retreated sharply. A hydrogeological study links the decline to reduced replenishment of groundwater after the Danghe Reservoir interrupted downstream river flow. As the regional water table fell, parts of the lake bed were exposed. The small pool made a larger change visible: its water depended on conditions beyond the ring of dunes.
From the journal
The falling waterline and the spring’s recovery
The shrinking pool prompted decades of rescue work. Its recovery tells a story that reaches beneath the dunes into the wider basin.
In the same city · Jiuquan ↗The exposed edge of the pool
A long effort to keep the spring
Rescue measures began in 1986 and continued through several attempts to address the falling level. Protecting a familiar scenic outline required understanding the basin beneath it. Water can move through pores and fractures in sediments, so changes in recharge and extraction can reach a spring even when they occur away from its bank. The shoreline connected a local concern with a regional water problem.
A rising line after 2018
A further treatment project began in April 2018. The study records the water surface rising and expanding afterwards. Its authors used a groundwater model to examine different treatment scenarios, connecting proposed work with changes in the pool’s level and area. Recovery thus became a measurable process: more submerged ground, a wider water surface and a changing relationship between the pool and its banks.
Keeping watch on a living system
A 2023 account published by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration describes the move toward scientific monitoring and continued management. The spring’s care extends through wells, measurements and the way water is used across the oasis. Its modern history has a clear arc—decline, emergency response and recovery—followed by the quieter work of keeping a vulnerable water landscape in balance.