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Determining the Mean Hydraulic Gradient of Ground Water Affected by Tidal Fluctuations
Author(s) -
Series Michael E.
Publication year - 1991
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/j.1745-6584.1991.tb00546.x
Subject(s) - water level , aquifer , groundwater , hydraulic head , mean flow , environmental science , geology , elevation (ballistics) , magnitude (astronomy) , hydrology (agriculture) , water flow , pressure gradient , soil science , geotechnical engineering , meteorology , mathematics , geometry , physics , geography , turbulence , oceanography , cartography , astronomy
Tidal fluctuations in surface‐water bodies produce progressive pressure waves in adjacent aquifers. As these pressure waves propagate inland, ground‐water levels and hydraulic gradients continuously fluctuate, creating a situation where a single set of water‐level measurements cannot be used to accurately characterize ground‐water flow. For example, a time series of water levels measured in a confined aquifer in Atlantic City, New Jersey, showed that the hydraulic gradient ranged from. 01 to. 001 with a 22‐degree change in direction during a tidal day of approximately 25 hours. At any point where ground water tidally fluctuates, the magnitude and direction of the hydraulic gradient fluctuates about the mean or regional hydraulic gradient. The net effect of these fluctuations on ground‐water flow can be determined using the mean hydraulic gradient, which can be calculated by comparing mean ground‐ and surface‐water elevations. Filtering methods traditionally used to determine daily mean sea level can be similarly applied to ground water to determine mean levels. Method (1) uses 71 consecutive hourly water‐level observations to accurately determine the mean level. Method (2) approximates the mean level using only 25 consecutive hourly observations; however, there is a small error associated with this method. The exact magnitude of this error is usually unknown, and therefore the accuracy of the mean level is also unknown. Method (1) should be used if a higher degree of accuracy is required.