This paper presents the results of an investigation on the characteristics of tunnelling-induced ground settlement in groundwater drawdown environment. The dynamics of the effect of groundwater drawdown on the ground settlements are first investigated using a case history concerning a conventional tunnelling situation in which the interaction between the tunnelling and the groundwater induced excessive ground surface settlements. A 2D stress-pore pressure coupled finite element analysis is then conducted on a tunnelling case with groundwater drawdown, aiming at investigating ground surface settlement characteristics. The results indicated among other things that significant portion of ground settlement can occur before tunnel face reaches, and that the error function approach does not provide a good fit to the settlement troughs for tunnelling cases with groundwater drawdown.