An approach to calculate land subsidence due to withdrawal of groundwater is presented. This approach is based on the theory of groundwater flow in saturated and unsaturated media. The proposed approach calculates the land subsidence in 3D condition. In the calculation the compressibility of ground was considered. The proposed method was employed to analyze the consolidation of soft clay layer and compared with the result by Terzaghi’s theoretical solution and odometer test. The results show that the difference is less than 2 %. The proposed method was applied to analyse the subsidence around a well of an aquitard layer due to withdrawal of confined groundwater from an aquifer under the aquitard layer. The method was also applied to calculate the subsidence behind an impervious wall

which cut the aquifer with steady flow under an aquitard.