Hydraulic parameters of a multilayered aquifer system in Kuwait City

The Kuwait Group consists mainly of clastic sediments overlying unconformably the Dammam Formation of Tertiary age. The Kuwait Group is generally divided into three main hydrostratigraphic units: the upper and lower aquifers separated by an aquitard. The upper aquifer is further divided into the water table aquifer, an aquitard and a semiconfined aquifer. This semiconfined unit was pumped and the drawdowns were observed in piezometers screened in various subunits of the Kuwait Group. Some pumping tests of short duration were carried out in the top water table aquifer as well. These tests showed that the subunits of the Kuwait Group are hydraulically interconnected to a varying degree.

The pumping test data were analysed using conventional analytical solutions. The semiconfined pumping test was also simulated by a quasi-three-dimensional model using a leaky multiaquifer modelling technique. The initial hydraulic parameters were improved manually in the model till best fit drawdowns were obtained.

The final parameters obtained by simulation of the pumping tests were used in designing a pilot drainage system for the control of a rising groundwater table in parts of Kuwait City.     

Modeling unsaturated flow in a layered formation under quasi-steady state conditions using geophysical data constraints

The identification of vadose zone flow parameters and solute travel time from the surface to the water table are key issues for the assessment of groundwater vulnerability. In this paper we use the results of time-lapse monitoring of the vadose zone in a UK consolidated sandstone aquifer using cross-hole zero-offset radar to assess and calibrate models of water flow in the vadose zone. The site under investigation is characterized by a layered structure, with permeable medium sandstone intercalated by finer, less permeable, laminated sandstone. Information on this structure is available from borehole geophysical (gamma-ray) logs. Monthly cross-hole radar monitoring was performed from August 1999 to February 2001, and shows small changes of moisture content over time and fairly large spatial variability with depth. One-dimensional Richards’ equation modeling of the infiltration process was performed under spatially heterogeneous, steady state conditions. Both layer structure and Richards’ equation parameters were simulated using a nested Monte Carlo approach, constrained via geostatistical analysis on the gamma-ray logs and on a priori information regarding the possible range of hydraulic parameters. The results of the Monte Carlo analysis show that, in order to match the radar-derived moisture content profiles, it is necessary to take into account the vertical scale of measurements, with an averaging window size of the order of the antenna length and the Fresnel zone width. Flow parameters cannot be uniquely identified, showing that the system is over parameterized with respect to the information content of the (nearly stationary) radar profiles. Estimates of travel time of water across the vadose zone are derived from the simulation results.     

Constraining a Flow Model with Field Measurements to Assess Water Transit Time Through a Vadose Zone

The modeling of thick vadose zones is particularly challenging because of difficulties in collecting a variety of measured sediment properties, which are required for parameterizing the model. Some models rely on synthetic data, whereas others are simplified by running as homogeneous sediment domains and relying on a single set of sediment properties. Few studies have simulated flow processes through a thick vadose zone using real and comprehensive data sets comprising multiple measurements. Here, we develop a flow model for a 7-m-thick vadose zone. This model, combining the numerical codes CTRAN/W with SEEP/W, includes the measured sediment hydraulic properties of the investigated vadose zone and incorporates the actual climate and subsurface conditions of the study site (precipitations, water-table elevations, and stable isotope data). The model is calibrated by fitting the simulated and measured vertical profiles of water content. Our flow model calculates a transit time of 1 year for the travel of water through the 7-m vadose zone; this estimate matches stable isotope-based results obtained previously for this site. A homogeneous sediment domain flow model, which considers only a single set of sediment properties, produces a transit time that is approximately half the duration of that of the heterogeneous flow model. This difference highlights the importance of assuming heterogeneous material within models of thick vadose zones and testifies to the advantage gained when using real sediment hydraulic properties to parametrize a flow model.     

Analytic solutions to transient groundwater flow under time-dependent sources in a heterogeneous aquifer bounded by fluctuating river stage

Analytical solutions for the water table and lateral discharge in a heterogeneous unconfined aquifer with time-dependent source and fluctuating river stage were derived and compared with those in an equivalent homogeneous aquifer. The heterogeneous aquifer considered consists of a number of sections of different hydraulic conductivity values. The source term and river stage were assumed to be time-dependent but spatially uniform. The solutions derived is useful in studying various groundwater flow problems in a horizontally heterogeneous aquifer since the spatially piecewise-constant hydraulic conductivity and temporally piecewise-constant recharge and lateral discharge can be used to quantify variations in these processes commonly observed in reality. Applying the solutions derived to an aquifer of three sections of different hydraulic conductivity values shown that (1) the aquifer heterogeneity significantly increases the spatial variation of the water table and thus its gradient but it has little effect on lateral discharge in the case of temporally and spatially uniform recharge, (2) the time-dependent but spatially uniform recharge increases the temporal variation of groundwater table over the entire aquifer but its effect on lateral discharge is limited in the zone near the river, and (3) the effect of river stage fluctuation on the water table and lateral discharge is limited in the zone near the river and the effect of the heterogeneity is to increase lateral discharge to or recharge from the river.     

Extinction depth and evapotranspiration from ground water under selected land covers

In many landscapes, vegetation extracts water from both the unsaturated and the saturated zones. The partitioning of evapotranspiration (ET) into vadose zone evapotranspiration and ground water evapotranspiration (GWET) is complex because it depends on land cover and subsurface characteristics. Traditionally, the GWET fraction is assumed to decay with increasing depth to the water table (DTWT), attaining a value of 0 at what is termed the extinction depth. A simple assumption of linear decay with depth is often used but has never been rigorously examined using unsaturated-saturated flow simulations. Furthermore, it is not well understood how to relate extinction depths to characteristics of land cover and soil texture. In this work, variable saturation flow theory is used to simulate GWET for three land covers and a range of soil properties under drying soil conditions. For a water table within half a meter of the land surface, nearly all ET is extracted from ground water due to the close hydraulic connection between the unsaturated and the saturated zones. For deep-rooted vegetation, the decoupling of ground water and vadose zone was found to begin at water table depths between 30 and 100 cm, depending on the soil texture. The decline of ET with DTWT is better simulated by an exponential decay function than the commonly used linear decay. A comparison with field data is consistent with the findings of this study. Tables are provided to vary the extinction depth for heterogeneous landscapes with different vegetation cover and soil properties.     

Bootstrap confidence intervals for design storms from exceedance series

Abstract

An approach for better understanding of the physical implication of estimated aquifer parameters is demonstrated by analysing the pumping test data at Cottam in the Nottingham aquifer, UK. A sensitivity analysis showed that the area represented by the estimated parameters was much smaller than the area covered by the depression cone. After parameters are estimated, further research should be carried out to understand what portions of the aquifer the parameters represent. The parameters estimated at Cottam represented mainly aquifer features between roughly 100 and 2000 m. The sensitivity analysis also showed that the observed drawdown being satisfactorily matched by a model with uniform parameters does not prove that the aquifer is homogeneous. Slightly anomalous data may imply the existence of large anomalous zones. Although the drawdowns at Cottam could be ‘satisfactorily’ fitted by a model with uniform parameters, the fit could be improved by a model using a more permeable aquifer but with a zone about 700 m wide and with 42% less transmissivity.     

An analytical solution for predicting the transient seepage from a subsurface drainage system

Subsurface drainage systems have been widely used to deal with soil salinization and waterlogging problems around the world. In this paper, a mathematical model was introduced to quantify the transient behavior of the groundwater table and the seepage from a subsurface drainage system. Based on the assumption of a hydrostatic pressure distribution, the model considered the pore-water flow in both the phreatic and vadose soil zones. An approximate analytical solution for the model was derived to quantify the drainage of soils which were initially water-saturated. The analytical solution was validated against laboratory experiments and a 2-D Richards equation-based model, and found to predict well the transient water seepage from the subsurface drainage system. A saturated flow-based model was also tested and found to over-predict the time required for drainage and the total water seepage by nearly one order of magnitude, in comparison with the experimental results and the present analytical solution. During drainage, a vadose zone with a significant water storage capacity developed above the phreatic surface. A considerable amount of water still remained in the vadose zone at the steady state with the water table situated at the drain bottom. Sensitivity analyses demonstrated that effects of the vadose zone were intensified with an increased thickness of capillary fringe, capillary rise and/or burying depth of drains, in terms of the required drainage time and total water seepage. The analytical solution provides guidance for assessing the capillary effects on the effectiveness and efficiency of subsurface drainage systems for combating soil salinization and waterlogging problems.     

On the Performance of Pilot-Point Based Hydraulic Tomography with a Geophysical a Priori Model

We present a novel method to estimate the hydraulic and storage properties of a heterogeneous aquifer system using pilot-point-based hydraulic tomography (HT) inversion in conjunction with a geophysical a priori model. The a priori model involved a soil stratification obtained by combining electrical resistivity tomography inversion and field data from hydrogeological experiments. Pilot-point densities were assigned according to the stratification, which also constrained aquifer parameters during HT inversion. The forward groundwater flow model, HydroGeoSphere, was supplied to the parameter-estimation tool, PEST, to perform HT inversion. The performance of our method was evaluated on a hypothetical, two-dimensional, multi-layered, granitic aquifer system representative of those commonly occurring in the Kandi region in Telangana. Inversion results were compared using two commonly adopted methods of modeling parameter-heterogeneity: (1) using piece-wise zones of property values obtained from geostatistical interpolation of local-scale estimates; and (2) HT inversion starting from a homogeneous parameter field with a uniform distribution of pilot-points. Performances of the inverted models were evaluated by conducting independent pumping tests and statistical analyses (using a Taylor diagram) of the model-to-measurement discrepancies in drawdowns. Our results showed that using the aforementioned geophysical a priori model could improve the parameter-estimation process.     

Identification of Groundwater Parameters Using an Adaptative Multiscale Method

The identification of groundwater parameters in heterogeneous systems is a major challenge in groundwater modeling. Flexible parameterization methods are needed to assess the complexity of the spatial distributions of these parameters in real aquifers. In this article, we introduce an adaptative parameterization to identify the distribution of hydraulic conductivity within the large‐scale (4400 km²) Upper Rhine aquifer. The method is based on adaptative multiscale triangulation (AMT) coupled with an inverse problem procedure that identifies the parameters' distributions by reducing the error between measured and simulated heads. The AMT method has the advantage of combining both zonation and interpolation approaches. The AMT method uses area‐based interpolation rather than an interpolation based on stochastic features. The method is applied to a standard 2D groundwater model that takes into account the interactions between the aquifer and surface water bodies, groundwater recharge, and pumping wells. The simulation period covers 204 months, from January 1986 to December 2002. Recordings at 109 piezometers are used for model calibration. The simulated heads are globally quite accurate and reproduce the main dynamics of the system. The local hydraulic conductivities resulting from the AMT method agree qualitatively with existing local experimental observations across the Rhine aquifer.     

Characterization of recharge through complex vadose zone of a granitic aquifer by time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography

The vadose zone is the main region controlling water movement from the land surface to the aquifer and has a very complex structure. The use of non-invasive or minimally invasive geophysical methods especially electrical resistivity imaging is a cost-effective approach adapted for long-term monitoring of the vadose zone. The main aim of this work is to know the fractures in the vadose zone, of granitic terrene, through which the recharge or preferred path recharge to the aquifer takes place and thus to relate moisture and electrical resistivity. Time lapse electrical resistivity tomography (TLERT) experiment was carried out in the vadose zone of granitic terrene at the Indian Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad along two profiles to a depth of 18 m and 13 m each. The profiles are 300 m apart. Piezometric, rainfall and soil moisture data were recorded to correlate with changes in the rainfall recharge. These TLERT difference images showed that the conductivity distribution was consistent with the recharge occurring along the minor fractures. We mapped the fractures in hard rock or granites to see the effect of the recharge on resistivity variation and estimation of moisture content. These fractures act as the preferred pathways for the recharge to take place. A good correlation between the soil moisture and resistivity is established in the vadose zone of granitic aquifer. Since the vadose zone exhibits extremely high variability, both in space and time, the surface geophysical investigations such as TLERT have been a simple and useful method to characterize the vadose zone, which would not have been possible with the point measurements alone. The analyses of the pseudosection with time indicate clearly that the assumption of the piston flow of the moisture front is not valid in hard rocks. The outcome of this study may provide some indirect parameters to the well known Richard's equation in studying the unsaturated zone.     

Vadose Zone Monitoring: Experiences and Trends in the United States

The vadose zone is the portion of the geologic profile above a perennial aquifer. Inclusion of mandatory vadose zone monitoring techniques as an approach to aquifer protect ion was first proposed under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act in the United States in 1978 and has since received increasing acceptance at federal and stale levels. The goals of a vadose zone characterization and monitoring effort are to establish background conditions, identify contaminant transport pathways, identify the extent and degree of existing contamination, establish the basis for monitoring network design, measure the parameters needed in a risk assessment, and provide detection of contaminant migration toward ground water resources. The benefits of vadose zone monitoring include early warning of contaminant migration, potential reduction of ground water monitoring efforts, reduction of contaminant spreading and volume, and reduced time and cost of remediation once a contaminant release occurs. Vadose zone characterization and monitoring techniques should be considered as critical hydrologic tools in the prevention of ground water resource degradation.     

Vadose zone-attenuated artificial recharge for input to a ground water model

Accurate representation of artificial recharge is requisite to calibration of a ground water model of an unconfined aquifer for a semiarid or arid site with a vadose zone that imparts significant attenuation of liquid transmission and substantial anthropogenic liquid discharges. Under such circumstances, artificial recharge occurs in response to liquid disposal to the vadose zone in areas that are small relative to the ground water model domain. Natural recharge, in contrast, is spatially variable and occurs over the entire upper boundary of a typical unconfined ground water model. An improved technique for partitioning artificial recharge from simulated total recharge for inclusion in a ground water model is presented. The improved technique is applied using data from the semiarid Hanford Site. From 1944 until the late 1980s, when Hanford's mission was the production of nuclear materials, the quantities of liquid discharged from production facilities to the ground vastly exceeded natural recharge. Nearly all hydraulic head data available for use in calibrating a ground water model at this site were collected during this period or later, when the aquifer was under the diminishing influence of the massive water disposals. The vadose zone is typically 80 to 90 m thick at the Central Plateau where most production facilities were located at this semiarid site, and its attenuation of liquid transmission to the aquifer can be significant. The new technique is shown to improve the representation of artificial recharge and thereby contribute to improvement in the calibration of a site-wide ground water model.     

Heterogeneity influences on stream water–groundwater interactions in a gravel-dominated floodplain

ABSTRACT

Floodplains are composed of complex depositional patterns of ancient and recent stream sediments, and research is needed to address the manner in which coarse floodplain materials affect stream–groundwater exchange patterns. Efforts to understand the heterogeneity of aquifers have utilized numerous techniques typically focused on point-scale measurements; however, in highly heterogeneous settings, the ability to model heterogeneity is dependent on the data density and spatial distribution. The objective of this research was to investigate the correlation between broad-scale methodologies for detecting heterogeneity and the observed spatial variability in stream/groundwater interactions of gravel-dominated alluvial floodplains. More specifically, this study examined the correlation between electrical resistivity (ER) and alluvial groundwater patterns during a flood event at a site on Barren Fork Creek, in the Ozark ecoregion of Oklahoma, USA, where chert gravels were common both as streambed and as floodplain material. Water table elevations from groundwater monitoring wells for a flood event on 1–5 May 2009 were compared to ER maps at various elevations. Areas with high ER matched areas with lower water table slope at the same elevation. This research demonstrated that ER approaches were capable of indicating heterogeneity in surface water–groundwater interactions, and that these heterogeneities were present even in an aquifer matrix characterized as highly conductive. Portions of gravel-dominated floodplain vadose zones characterized by high hydraulic conductivity features can result in heterogeneous flow patterns when the vadose zone of alluvial floodplains activates during storm events.

EDITOR D. Koutsoyiannis; ASSOCIATE EDITOR X. Chen     

Quantification of vertical water fluxes in the vadose zone using particle‐size distribution and pedology‐based approaches to model soil heterogeneities

One‐dimensional flow simulations were conducted at four locations of the shallow alluvial aquifer of the upper Rhine River (at the Erstein polder) to quantify the time‐dependent moisture distribution, the water flux and the water volume infiltrated in the unsaturated zone as a function of soil heterogeneities during a five‐day‐long flooding event. Three methods of estimating the hydraulic parameters of soil in the vadose zone were tested. They are based on the following: (1) experimental data, (2) soil particle‐size distribution and (3) pedology information on soils. Water fluxes calculated from modelling approaches 2 and 3 were compared with those of the experiment‐based values and the effect of these differences on the arrival time and velocity of water at the water table were analysed. Major differences in water fluxes were found among the methods of estimating the hydrodynamic parameters. At the Terrace location, the groundwater recharge predicted using soil data from methods 1 and 2 are approximately 4500 and 2400 mm, respectively. Flow simulations using soil data and the experiment‐based method show the highest velocities of infiltrating water at the soil surface and largest volume of groundwater infiltration but result in the lowest centres of the moisture content mass. The results obtained using soil data based on the pedological method are similar to those calculated using soil parameters based on the particle‐size distribution of extracted soil samples. Water pressure profiles calculated on Terrace and Channel location, 3 and 7 days after the inundation event agreed reasonably well with those observed when using hydrodynamic parameters from the experiment‐based method. However, the flow model using the pedology‐based parameters largely underestimates the time needed to achieve hydrostatic conditions of the soil water profile once water flooding at the soil surface stops. This can be mainly attributed to the low values of estimated van Genuchten parameter α. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Detecting Drawdowns Masked by Environmental Stresses with Water‐Level Models

Detecting and quantifying small drawdown at observation wells distant from the pumping well greatly expands the characterized aquifer volume. However, this detection is often obscured by water level fluctuations such as barometric and tidal effects. A reliable analytical approach for distinguishing drawdown from nonpumping water‐level fluctuations is presented and tested here. Drawdown is distinguished by analytically simulating all pumping and nonpumping water‐level stresses simultaneously during the period of record. Pumping signals are generated with Theis models, where the pumping schedule is translated into water‐level change with the Theis solution. This approach closely matched drawdowns simulated with a complex three‐dimensional, hypothetical model and reasonably estimated drawdowns from an aquifer test conducted in a complex hydrogeologic system. Pumping‐induced changes generated with a numerical model and analytical Theis model agreed (RMS as low as 0.007 m) in cases where pumping signals traveled more than 1 km across confining units and fault structures. Maximum drawdowns of about 0.05 m were analytically estimated from field investigations where environmental fluctuations approached 0.2 m during the analysis period.     

Variability of unsaturated Bromide fluxes as measured through a layered volcanic vadose zone in New Zealand

The measured drainage fluxes through a layered volcanic vadose zone exhibited high spatial variability as a consequence of heterogeneous flow conditions. The drainage flux variability was quantified using automated equilibrium tension lysimeters, installed in close‐proximity and resulted in high variability in the Br masses recovered from a conservative tracer experiment. The primary cause of the heterogeneous flow was attributed to textural changes occurring at the interface between volcanic layers, resulting in development of funnel‐flow patterns, and further enhanced by the existence of hydrophobic conditions. The Br recoveries in individual automated equilibrium tension lysimeters were used to determine the corresponding variable sizes of the surface areas contributing drainage to the lysimeters. The tracer experiment confirmed the existence of unsaturated lateral transport occurring at the sloping interface of the coarse Taupo Ignimbrite material with the silty Palaeosol layer at approximately 4.2 m depth. This study demonstrates that measurements of both flux and solute concentrations at multiple locations are essential when heterogeneous flow is suspected to be present, to be able to determine reliable estimates of contaminant leaching through the vadose zone at the plot scale. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Mathematical View of Water Table Fluctuations in a Shallow Aquifer in Brazil

Detailed monitoring of the groundwater table can provide important data about both short‐ and long‐term aquifer processes, including information useful for estimating recharge and facilitating groundwater modeling and remediation efforts. In this paper, we presents results of 4 years (2002 to 2005) of monitoring groundwater water levels in the Rio Claro Aquifer using observation wells drilled at the Rio Claro campus of São Paulo State University in Brazil. The data were used to follow natural periodic fluctuations in the water table, specifically those resulting from earth tides and seasonal recharge cycles. Statistical analyses included methods of time‐series analysis using Fourier analysis, cross‐correlation, and R/S analysis. Relationships could be established between rainfall and well recovery, as well as the persistence and degree of autocorrelation of the water table variations. We further used numerical solutions of the Richards equation to obtain estimates of the recharge rate and seasonable groundwater fluctuations. Seasonable soil moisture transit times through the vadose zone obtained with the numerical solution were very close to those obtained with the cross‐correlation analysis. We also employed a little‐used deep drainage boundary condition to obtain estimates of seasonable water table fluctuations, which were found to be consistent with observed transient groundwater levels during the period of study.     

An analytical solution for non-Darcian flow in a confined aquifer using the power law function

We have developed a new method to analyze the power law based non-Darcian flow toward a well in a confined aquifer with and without wellbore storage. This method is based on a combination of the linearization approximation of the non-Darcian flow equation and the Laplace transform. Analytical solutions of steady-state and late time drawdowns are obtained. Semi-analytical solutions of the drawdowns at any distance and time are computed by using the Stehfest numerical inverse Laplace transform. The results of this study agree perfectly with previous Theis solution for an infinitesimal well and with the Papadopulos and Cooper’s solution for a finite-diameter well under the special case of Darcian flow. The Boltzmann transform, which is commonly employed for solving non-Darcian flow problems before, is problematic for studying radial non-Darcian flow. Comparison of drawdowns obtained by our proposed method and the Boltzmann transform method suggests that the Boltzmann transform method differs from the linearization method at early and moderate times, and it yields similar results as the linearization method at late times. If the power index n and the quasi hydraulic conductivity k get larger, drawdowns at late times will become less, regardless of the wellbore storage. When n is larger, flow approaches steady state earlier. The drawdown at steady state is approximately proportional to r¹⁻ⁿ, where r is the radial distance from the pumping well. The late time drawdown is a superposition of the steady-state solution and a negative time-dependent term that is proportional to t^{(1−n)/(3−n)}, where t is the time.     

Hydraulic head applications of flow logs in the study of heterogeneous aquifers

Permeability profiles derived from high-resolution flow logs in heterogeneous aquifers provide a limited sample of the most permeable beds or fractures determining the hydraulic properties of those aquifers. This paper demonstrates that flow logs can also be used to infer the large-scale properties of aquifers surrounding boreholes. The analysis is based on the interpretation of the hydraulic head values estimated from the flow log analysis. Pairs of quasi-steady flow profiles obtained under ambient conditions and while either pumping or injecting are used to estimate the hydraulic head in each water-producing zone. Although the analysis yields localized estimates of transmissivity for a few water-producing zones, the hydraulic head estimates apply to the far-field aquifers to which these zones are connected. The hydraulic head data are combined with information from other sources to identify the large-scale structure of heterogeneous aquifers. More complicated cross-borehole flow experiments are used to characterize the pattern of connection between large-scale aquifer units inferred from the hydraulic head estimates. The interpretation of hydraulic heads in situ under steady and transient conditions is illustrated by several case studies, including an example with heterogeneous permeable beds in an unconsolidated aquifer, and four examples with heterogeneous distributions of bedding planes and/or fractures in bedrock aquifers.     

Numerical simulation of subsurface characterization methods: application to a natural aquifer analogue

Information from an outcrop is used as an analogue of a natural heterogeneous aquifer in order to provide an exhaustive data set of hydraulic properties. Based on this data, two commonly used borehole based investigation methods are simulated numerically. For a scenario of sparse sampling of the aquifer, the process of regionalization of the borehole hydraulic conductivity values is simulated by application of a deterministic interpolation approach and conditioned stochastic simulations. Comparison of the cumulative distributions of particle arrival times illustrates the effects of the sparse sampling, the properties of the individual investigation methods and the regionalization methods on the ability to predict flow and transport behaviour in the real system (i.e. the exhaustive data set).