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Calculating Ground Water Transit Time of Horizontal Flow through Leaky Aquifers
Author(s) -
Braunsfurth Angelika C.,
Schneider Wilfried
Publication year - 2007
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.1745-6584.2007.00393.x
Subject(s) - aquifer , leakage (economics) , transit time , groundwater , mechanics , environmental science , flow (mathematics) , geology , geotechnical engineering , engineering , physics , transport engineering , economics , macroeconomics
The calculation of ground water transit times is one important factor in ground water protection. In this paper, we present an analytical solution for the transit time for a Dupuit‐type flow system applicable to saturated flow through a horizontal leaky aquifer discharging to a downgradient fixed‐head boundary under steady‐state conditions. We investigate the influence of leakage when comparing the resulting travel times of our model based on head‐dependent leakage with the commonly used model with no leakage and a simplified model with constant leakage. The results show significant differences in the position of the water divide and transit time, suggesting that leakage cannot be ignored.