Temporal sampling and role of flux measurements for subsurface heterogeneous characterization in groundwater basins using hydraulic tomography
Journal
Hydrological Processes
Journal Volume
35
Journal Issue
8
Date Issued
2021
Author(s)
DOI
HYPRE
Abstract
Accurate characterization of heterogeneity in groundwater basins is crucial to the sustainable management of groundwater resources. This study explores the temporal sampling issues and the role of flux measurements in the characterization of heterogeneity in groundwater basins using numerical experiments. The experiments involve a digital basin imitating the groundwater basin of the North China Plain (NCP), where the groundwater exploitation reduction program is ongoing. Using the experiments, we champion that the reduction program could collect groundwater level information induced by operational variations of existing pumping wells at different locations in the basin. Such a dataset could serve as a basin-scale hydraulic tomography (HT) to characterize the basin-scale heterogeneity cost-effectively. Both steady-state and transient-state inversion experiments demonstrate the advantage of HT surveys in characterizing basin-scale heterogeneity over conventional pumping tests at fixed well locations. Additionally, head data at the early, intermediate, and late time from well hydrographs should be selected for the HT analysis to maximize HT's power and save computational costs. When accurate geological zones are incorporated in prior information, flux measurements significantly improve parameter estimates based on conventional pumping tests. However, their effects are less noticeable for long-term HT surveys in such basin-scale aquifers without fissures or fractures. This basin-scale tomographic survey example serves a guide for field data collection and optimization of the analysis of future basin-scale HT. © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Subjects
Aquifers; Cost benefit analysis; Hydrogeology; Pumps; Surveys; Tomography; Computational costs; Field data collection; Groundwater exploitation; Hydraulic tomographies; Numerical experiments; Parameter estimate; Steady state and transients; Sustainable management; Groundwater resources; accuracy assessment; experimental study; flux measurement; groundwater flow; groundwater resource; heterogeneity; hydraulics; optimization; sampling; temporal variation; tomography; well water; China; North China Plain
Publisher
John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Type
journal article