Application of grey correlation method to evaluate potential groundwater recharge sites

Abstract

Artificial recharge is a practical tool available for increasing the groundwater storage capacity. The efficiency of artificial recharge is related to various hydrogeological factors of the target area. In this study, a variable saturated groundwater flow model, FEM-WATER, was used to evaluate the arrival times of recharged water that infiltrates from an artificial recharge pond to the groundwater table under various hydrogeological conditions. Forty-five arrival times were generated by FEMWATER. The relationships between the arrival times and hydrogeological factors used in the simulation of FEMWATER were analyzed by the grey correlation method. The results show the order of importance of the factors as they influence the arrival time. In order from high to low importance, they are a, D g , h e , D p , K S and b. D g and D p are interpreted as the potential for movement of the recharge water; h e is the water storage capacity of soil, and K S represents the ability of soil to transport water. a and b describe the characteristic curve of the unsaturated soil. The method was applied to evaluate a suitable site for artificial recharge in the Yun-Lin area. Grey correlation analysis was performed to obtain the grey correlation grade using the minimum arrival time as a reference sequence. An index is proposed herein to determine the recharge efficiency of 20 sampling sites. A contour mapping of index values at the 20 sampling sites identified three areas for artificial aquifer recharge in Yun-Lin. Area A in the upper plain is considered more appropriate for groundwater recharge than areas B and C in the coast.

Identifying Major Factors Affecting Groundwater Change in the North China Plain with Grey Relational Analysis

“…To date, grey system theory has been applied extensively in many fields, including hydrology, manufacturing, and financial analyses [23][24][25]. For groundwater, Gau et al [26] used GRA to identify factors for the selection of suitable groundwater recharge sites, using hydrogeological data obtained with a groundwater flow model. Similarly, Du et al [27] adopted GRA to infer that surface water irrigation and groundwater mining are the main factors driving change in groundwater levels in both highland and lowland areas in the Baojixia Irrigation District.…”

Optimization of turning operations with multiple performance characteristics using the Taguchi method and Grey relational analysis

“…Data preprocessing converts the original sequence to a comparable sequence. Several methodologies of preprocessing data can be used in Grey relation analysis, depending on the characteristics of the original sequence (Deng, 1989;Gau et al, 2006;You et al, 2007). If the target value of the original sequence is "the-larger-the-better", then the original sequence is normalized as follows…”

Comparison study on qualitative and quantitative risk assessment methods for urban natural gas pipeline network

“…Usually, it is difficult to obtain the sufficient data [20]. Based on this status, the weights of the inherent risk index and consequence index can be achieved by the Grey Correlation Theory [21][22][23]. The Grey Correlation Theory aims at finding out the comparability among a mass of dissimilar data.…”