Аннотация:The groundwater regime in built-up areas undergoes permanent changes under anthropogenicimpacts, with groundwater being the most dynamic component of the geological environment. This articledraws attention to the complex changes in the groundwater regime that result in a number of undesired geoecological,engineering geological, and hydrogeological consequences which determine the difficulty of engineeringgeological conditions for construction. It is assumed that there exist certain cycles in anthropogenicchanges in the groundwater regime and the geological environment as a whole. These cycles comply with thetechnological progress and urban development level. The article provides a brief overview of surface subsidenceswhich are typical of megacities of the 20th and early 21st century and caused by intense and long-termwater intake for drinking and process water supply. The importance of long-term prediction of anthropogenicchanges in the groundwater regime is emphasized, in particular, in long-term flooding forecasts on the exampleof Moscow. The special importance of monitoring and registering the vertical filtration gradient in builtupareas with a potential karst-suffosion hazard is shown. In conclusion, the need for a system-level approachto studying and considering anthropogenic changes in the groundwater regime is noted, including the organizationof hydrogeological monitoring; inclusion of the vertical filtration gradient map in the set of hydrogeologicalmaps; elaboration of hydrogeological models of the city and its municipal okrugs, as well as ofespecially hazardous and technically sophisticated engineering structures (based on mathematical, analogand physical modeling); and long-term forecasting.