An overview of groundwater in Scotland

Abstract

SynopsisGroundwater is an important, but undervalued, national resource in Scotland.Groundwater is present both in the bedrock, where much of the flow is through fractures, and in the superficial deposits, where intergranular flow dominates. The most productive bedrock aquifers are the Permian sandstones and breccia in southwest Scotland and the Devonian sandstones in Fife, Strathmore and Morayshire. Alluvium and fluvio-glacial sands and gravels can also form important aquifers and provide some of Scotland's most highly yielding boreholes. Groundwater is generally weakly mineralised with total dissolved solids in the range 100 to 500 mg l -1 and is dominated by Ca and HCO 3 type waters.There are in excess of 4000 boreholes in Scotland, and over 20 000 springs and wells used for private water supply. There is little available reliable data on the total volumes of groundwater abstracted; however, conservative estimates suggest that the total volume is approximately 330 megalitres per day for public water supply, industry, agriculture and private water supply. The volume of groundwater used in public water supply is growing annually; currently 7% of the daily 2400 megalitres per day supplied by Scottish Water. Scottish groundwater is under threat from agricultural activity, the mining legacy, septic tanks and general land development. The implementation of the EU Nitrates and Water framework directives is an excellent opportunity to sustainably manage and develop groundwater in Scotland.Running title: An overview of groundwater in Scotland

Using transmissivity, specific capacity and borehole yield data to assess the productivity of Scottish aquifers

“…Work by Robins (1990) and MacDonald et al (2005) gives a useful overview of the nature of Scotland's aquifers and of the requirements for further data to characterize them. A hydrogeological map of Scotland (BGS 1988) divides Scotland's aquifers into broad groups, based on qualitative descriptions of their flow characteristics, and includes the locations of known groundwater sources.…”

“…A hydrogeological map of Scotland (BGS 1988) divides Scotland's aquifers into broad groups, based on qualitative descriptions of their flow characteristics, and includes the locations of known groundwater sources. This was updated to produce an aquifer productivity map of Scotland (MacDonald et al 2005), which is currently used by SEPA in the implementation of groundwater strategy at a national level. The categorization relies mainly on expert opinion, and up to now validation with quantitative datasets has been limited (MacDonald et al 2005).…”

“…This was updated to produce an aquifer productivity map of Scotland (MacDonald et al 2005), which is currently used by SEPA in the implementation of groundwater strategy at a national level. The categorization relies mainly on expert opinion, and up to now validation with quantitative datasets has been limited (MacDonald et al 2005).…”

“…A major component of the study was the creation of the Scottish Aquifer Properties Database (SAPD). This paper presents an analysis of all the transmissivity, specific capacity and borehole yield values held by the database, followed by a comparison of these datasets with the map of bedrock aquifer productivity for Scotland (MacDonald et al 2004(MacDonald et al , 2005.…”

Macronutrient status of UK groundwater: Nitrogen, phosphorus and organic carbon

“…These all reflect intensive cultivation or grassland usage in which annual nitrate leaching losses from fertiliser are likely to exceed 40 kg/ha. MacDonald et al (2005) assessed that groundwater across 14% of Scotland was at risk of exceeding the 11.3 mg NO3-N/L standard.…”