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Use of Groundwater Level Fluctuations near an Operating Water Supply Well to Estimate Aquifer Transmissivity
Author(s) -
Pozdniakov Sergey,
Ivanov Pavel,
Davis Paul,
Sizov Nikolay
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
groundwater
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.84
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1745-6584
pISSN - 0017-467X
DOI - 10.1111/gwat.13018
Subject(s) - aquifer , slug test , hydraulic head , groundwater , aquifer test , head (geology) , aquifer properties , water well , geology , water supply , well test (oil and gas) , soil science , environmental science , geotechnical engineering , petroleum engineering , environmental engineering , geomorphology , groundwater recharge
We developed a method to estimate aquifer transmissivity from the hydraulic‐head data associated with the normal cyclic operation of a water supply well thus avoiding the need for interrupting the water supply associated with a traditional aquifer test. The method is based on an analytical solution that relates the aquifer's transmissivity to the standard deviation of the hydraulic‐head fluctuations in one or more observation wells that are due to the periodic pumping of the production well. We analyzed the resulting analytical solution and demonstrated that when the observation wells are located near the pumping well, the solution has a simple, Dupuit like form. Numerical analysis demonstrates that the analytical solution can also be used for a quasi‐periodic pumping of the supply well. Simulation of cyclic pumping in a statistically heterogeneous medium confirms that the method is suitable for analyzing the transmissivity of weakly or moderately heterogeneous aquifers. If only one observation well is available, and the shift in the phase of hydraulic‐head oscillations between the pumping well and the observation well is not identifiable. Prior knowledge of aquifer's hydraulic diffusivity is required to obtain the value of the aquifer transmissivity.