Floodplain hydraulics in a glaciated bedrock river valley

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 870-889 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Ostendorf ◽  
Erich S. Hinlein ◽  
Aaron I. Judge
Keyword(s):  
Travel Time ◽  
Water Table ◽  
Unconfined Aquifer ◽  
Silty Sand ◽  
Specific Yield ◽  
Recharge Rate ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
Sand Deposit ◽  
Diurnal Fluctuations ◽  
Eastern Massachusetts

Data and one dimensional, unsteady theory document the average, seasonal, and diurnal hydraulics of an unconfined aquifer in the surficial floodplain deposit of the Neponset River, which flows through a glaciated bedrock valley in eastern Massachusetts. The 20 m thick silty sand deposit has a permeability of 1.4 × 10−11 m2, a porosity of 0.37, a 600 m halfwidth, and an infiltration coefficient of 0.39. The steady water table is parabolic with a 0.60 m value at the valley wall that implies an average 33-year travel time across the floodplain in response to an average recharge rate of 7.0 × 10−9 m/s. Seasonal hydraulics are governed by the floodplain porosity and marked by periodicity of the river (0.48 m amplitude) and recharge (1.9 × 10−8 m/s amplitude), which maintain flow from the floodplain into the river year round. Attenuation of the diurnal fluctuations suggests that the specific yield ranges from 0.05 to 0.14, and yields horizontal flow excursions of 1 m scale near the riverbank.

Estimating the Temporal Distribution of Groundwater Recharge by Using the Transient Water Table Fluctuation Method and Watershed Hydrologic Model

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-104
Author(s):  
Il-Moon Chung ◽  
Youn Jung Kim ◽  
Nam Won Kim
Keyword(s):  
Groundwater Recharge ◽  
Water Table ◽  
Temporal Distribution ◽  
Jeju Island ◽  
Specific Yield ◽  
Recharge Rate ◽  
Water Table Fluctuation ◽  
Water Table Fluctuation Method ◽  
Reaction Factor ◽  
Fluctuation Method

HighlightsThe transient water table fluctuation method (TWTFM) is revisited.A novel application of linking SWAT model and TWTFM is suggested.A method is proposed to estimate daily groundwater recharge distribution.The method is demonstrated for the Jeju Island in Korea.Abstract. Estimating groundwater recharge remains a difficult but necessary task as part of managing available groundwater supplies. For example, the average groundwater recharge rate of Jeju Island is 54%, which is considerably higher than the inland recharge rate (~15%) in Korea. Although groundwater is the main water source of this and many other islands, quantifying temporal groundwater recharge for water resources planning remains difficult. To estimate groundwater recharge based on rainfall, a simple and straightforward method is proposed that uses an application of the Transient Water Table Fluctuation Method (TWTFM) linked with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). By using the computed annual percolation from the SWAT as input, two parameters (reaction factor and specific yield) could be estimated by assuming that the sum of daily recharge via the TWTFM was approximately equal to the annual percolation near the water table. This methodology was applied to the Hancheon watershed of Jeju Island, South Korea. Runoff time series data for two years (2009 and 2010) were used to calibrate SWAT and another two years of data were used to validate computed discharges from SWAT. For the calibration of the combined SWAT and TWTFM model, groundwater level data from 2009 and 2010 were used, and then data from 2011 and 2012 were used to predict groundwater recharge using the calibrated TWTFM parameters. The proposed methodology can be used as an efficient tool for estimating the temporal distribution of groundwater recharge using only groundwater data and the annual percolation rate. This methodology can be beneficial for regions where the vadose zone depth is deeply formed and temporal recharge predictions are essential for water management. Keywords: Reaction factor, Specific yield, SWAT, Transient water table fluctuation method (TWTFM).

Using groundwater levels and Specific Yield to Estimate the Recharge, South of Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 191
Author(s):  
Sherwan Sh. Qurtas
Keyword(s):  
Unconfined Aquifer ◽  
Middle Part ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Specific Yield ◽  
Aquifer System ◽  
Groundwater Levels ◽  
Monitoring Wells ◽  
Water Table Fluctuation Method ◽  
Recharge Estimation ◽  
Fluctuation Method

Recharge estimation accurately is crucial to proper groundwater resource management, for the groundwater is dynamic and replenished natural resource. Usually recharge estimation depends on the; the water balance, water levels, and precipitation. This paper is studying the south-middle part of Erbil basin, with the majority of Quaternary sediments, the unconfined aquifer system is dominant, and the unsaturated zone is ranging from 15 to 50 meters, which groundwater levels response is moderate. The purpose of this study is quantification the natural recharge from precipitation. The water table fluctuation method is applied; using groundwater levels data of selected monitoring wells, neighboring meteorological station of the wells, and the specific yield of the aquifers. This method is widely used for its simplicity, scientific, realistic, and direct measurement. The accuracy depends on the how much the determination of specific yield is accurate, accuracy of the data, and the extrapolations of recession of groundwater levels curves of no rain periods. The normal annual precipitation there is 420 mm, the average recharge is 89 mm, and the average specific yield is around 0.03. The data of one water year of 2009 and 2010 has taken for some technical and accuracy reasons.

Drawdowns at the Free Water Table During Pumping Tests in Artesian and Semiartesian Aquifers

1980 ◽  
Vol 11 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 159-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrik Kærgaard
Keyword(s):  
Water Table ◽  
Free Water ◽  
Pumping Test ◽  
Water Withdrawal ◽  
Specific Yield ◽  
Minor Role ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Long Term Storage ◽  
Term Storage

In an earlier paper I have shown an example of how long term drawdowns can be used for the computation of long term storage in artesian and semiartesian areas. In most cases the long term storage is more or less equivalent to the specific yield at the water table; the storage mechanisms of consolidation playing a minor role in long term situations. The specific yield in artesian areas is a very important parameter in the prediction of long term effects of ground water withdrawal. Especially the stream depletion will often mainly be governed by draw-downs in upper nonpumped aquifers near the water table, and these drawdowns depend to a great extent on the specific yield at the water table. A determination of long term storage will often necessitate long term draw-down data, however, under certain circumstances a determination can be made on the basis of a pumping test of limited duration (3-5 weeks) provided drawdown observations at the water table can be made. In this paper some formulas dealing with water table drawdowns in different geohydrologic systems are reviewed, and two cases in which these formulas have been used in practice are presented.

scholarly journals Approximate analysis of three-dimensional groundwater flow toward a radial collector well in a finite-extent unconfined aquifer

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.-S. Huang ◽  
J.-J. Chen ◽  
H.-D. Yeh
Keyword(s):  
Groundwater Flow ◽  
Integral Transform ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Vertical Component ◽  
Hydraulic Head ◽  
Unconfined Aquifer ◽  
Specific Yield ◽  
Specific Storage ◽  
Sink Term ◽  
Radial Collector Well

Abstract. This study develops a three-dimensional (3-D) mathematical model for describing transient hydraulic head distributions due to pumping at a radial collector well (RCW) in a rectangular confined or unconfined aquifer bounded by two parallel streams and no-flow boundaries. The streams with low-permeability streambeds fully penetrate the aquifer. The governing equation with a point-sink term is employed. A first-order free surface equation delineating the water table decline induced by the well is considered. Robin boundary conditions are adopted to describe fluxes across the streambeds. The head solution for the point sink is derived by applying the methods of finite integral transform and Laplace transform. The head solution for a RCW is obtained by integrating the point-sink solution along the laterals of the RCW and then dividing the integration result by the sum of lateral lengths. On the basis of Darcy's law and head distributions along the streams, the solution for the stream depletion rate (SDR) can also be developed. With the aid of the head and SDR solutions, the sensitivity analysis can then be performed to explore the response of the hydraulic head to the change in a specific parameter such as the horizontal and vertical hydraulic conductivities, streambed permeability, specific storage, specific yield, lateral length, and well depth. Spatial head distributions subject to the anisotropy of aquifer hydraulic conductivities are analyzed. A quantitative criterion is provided to identify whether groundwater flow at a specific region is 3-D or 2-D without the vertical component. In addition, another criterion is also given to allow for the neglect of vertical flow effect on SDR. Conventional 2-D flow models can be used to provide accurate head and SDR predictions if satisfying these two criteria.

Numerical analysis of one-dimensional decay of a perched water table

1978 ◽  
Vol 36 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 109-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.K. Watson ◽  
F.D. Whisler ◽  
A.A. Curtis
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Analysis ◽  
Water Table ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
Perched Water ◽  
Perched Water Table

Uncertainty and Sensitivity Analyses of Groundwater Travel Time in a Two-Dimensional Variably-Saturated Fractured Geologic Medium

1992 ◽  
Vol 294 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. B. Gureghian ◽  
B. Sagar
Keyword(s):  
Travel Time ◽  
Sparse Matrix ◽  
Gaussian Elimination ◽  
Probabilistic Method ◽  
Unconfined Aquifer ◽  
Performance Measure ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
Nuclear Waste Repository ◽  
Aquifer Recharge ◽  
Adjoint Sensitivity

ABSTRACTThis paper presents a method for sensitivity and uncertainty analyses of a hypothetical nuclear waste repository located in a layered and fractured unconfined aquifer. Groundwater travel time (GWTlT) has been selected as the performance measure. The repository is located in the unsaturated zone, and the source of aquifer recharge is due solely to steady infiltration impinging uniformly over the surface area that is to be modeled. The equivalent porous media concept is adopted to model the fractured zone in the flow field. The evaluation of pathlines and travel time of water particles in the flow domain is performed based on a Lagrangian concept. The Bubnov-Galerkin finite-element method is employed to solve the primary flow problem (non-linear), the equation of motion, and the adjoint sensitivity equations. The matrix equations are solved with a Gaussian elimination technique using sparse matrix solvers. The sensitivity measure corresponds to the first derivative of the performance measure (GWTT) with respect to the parameters of the system. The uncertainty in the computed GWTT is quantified by using the first-order second-moment (FOSM) approach, a probabilistic method that relies on the mean and variance of the system parameters and the sensitivity of the performance measure with respect to these parameters. A test case corresponding to a layered and fractured, unconfined aquifer is then presented to illustrate the various features of the method.

Water Table Uncertainties due to Uncertainties in Structure and Properties of an Unconfined Aquifer

Ground Water ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-265
Author(s):  
Juerg Hauser ◽  
Florian Wellmann ◽  
Mike Trefry
Keyword(s):  
Water Table ◽  
Unconfined Aquifer ◽  
Structure And Properties
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document