Field characterization and data integration to define the hydraulic heterogeneity of a shallow granular aquifer at a sub-watershed scale

Paradis, Daniel; Tremblay, Laurie; Lefebvre, René; Gloaguen, Erwan; Rivera, Alfonso; Parent, Michel; Ballard, Jean-Marc; Michaud, Yves; Brunet, Patrick J.

doi:10.1007/s12665-014-3318-2

Cited by 14 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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Section: Synthetic Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The surficial sediments of the study area where tomographic slug tests have been carried out by Paradis [] consist primarily of Late Quaternary sandy and silty sediments that were deposited in the receding Champlain Sea, which was an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that had invaded the St. Lawrence Valley at the time of the last deglaciation [ Bolduc , ; Paradis et al ., ; Tremblay et al ., ]. This littoral and sublittoral depositional environment resulted in superposition of long (>100 m) interdigitized sand and silt strata with fine vertical and lateral intrastratal transitions in grain size as a result of changing energy levels along Champlain Sea shorelines [ Paradis et al ., ]. At the tomography site, values of K h based on multilevel slug tests in wells done at 15 cm intervals ranged from 7 × 10 −7 to 2 × 10 −5 m/s using the Bouwer and Rice [] method [ Paradis et al ., ], whereas K v estimates from permeameter tests on sediment samples at the same scale ranged from 2.7 × 10 −8 to 1.0 × 10 −5 m/s [ Paradis and Lefebvre , ].…”

Section: Synthetic Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Synthetic scenarios reflect the general aquifer characteristics and experimental configuration of a field implementation of tomographic slug tests in a littoral aquifer reported by Paradis [] and Paradis et al . []. Laboratory and field tests for this aquifer indicate significant differences in K h and K v values over intervals smaller than the length of the stressed intervals used for the field implementation of tomographic slug tests [ Paradis and Lefebvre , ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Resolution analysis of tomographic slug test head data: Two‐dimensional radial case

Paradis

Gloaguen

Lefebvre

et al. 2015

Water Resources Research

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Hydraulic tomography inverse problems, which are solved to estimate aquifer hydraulic properties between wells, are known to be ill-conditioned and a priori information is often added to regularize numerical inversion of head data. Because both head data and a priori information have effects on the inversed solution, assessing the meaningful information contained in head data alone is required to ensure comprehensive interpretation of inverse solutions, whether they are regularized or not. This study thus aims to assess the amount of information contained in tomographic slug tests head data to resolve heterogeneity in K h , K v /K h , and S s . Therefore, a resolution analysis based on truncated singular value decomposition of the sensitivity matrix with a noise level representative of field measurements is applied using synthetic data reflecting a known littoral aquifer. As an approximation of the hydraulic behavior of a real aquifer system, synthetic tomographic experiments and associated sensitivity matrices are generated using a radial flow model accounting for wellbore storage to simulate slug tests in a plane encompassing a stressed well and an observation well. Although fine-scale resolution of heterogeneities is limited by the diffusive nature of the groundwater flow equations, inversion of tomographic slug tests head data holds the potential to uniquely resolve coarse-scale heterogeneity in K h , K v /K h , and S s , as inscribed in the resolution matrix. This implies that tomographic head data can provide key information on aquifer heterogeneity and anisotropy, but that fine-scale information must be supplied by a priori information to obtain finer details.

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Section: Synthetic Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Synthetic Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Resolution analysis of tomographic slug test head data: Two‐dimensional radial case

Paradis

Gloaguen

Lefebvre

et al. 2015

Water Resources Research

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“…These plugs were characterized for porosity, permeability, and NMR response, and by using a petrographic microscope and SEM analyses in different sedimentary units. Core plugs of Paradis et al 2014) cylindrical shape (diameter = 18 mm; length = 60 mm) were first tested for permeability. Next, porosity was calculated using the liquid saturation method based on Archimedes' principle and then NMR analysis was realized.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of a fluvial aquifer at a range of depths and scales: the Triassic St Bees Sandstone Formation, Cumbria, UK

2017

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Fluvial sedimentary successions represent porous media that host groundwater and geothermal resources. Additionally, they overlie crystalline rocks hosting nuclear waste repositories in rift settings. The permeability characteristics of an arenaceous fluvial succession, the Triassic St Bees Sandstone Formation in England (UK), are described, from core-plug to well-test scale up to~1 km depth. Within such lithified successions, dissolution associated with the circulation of meteoric water results in increased permeability (K~10 −1 -10 0 m/day) to depths of at least 150 m below ground level (BGL) in aquifer systems that are subject to rapid groundwater circulation. Thus, contaminant transport is likely to occur at relatively high rates. In a deeper investigation (> 150 m depth), where the aquifer has not been subjected to rapid groundwater circulation, well-test-scale hydraulic conductivity is lower, decreasing from K~10 −2 m/day at 150-400 m BGL to 10 −3 m/day down-dip at~1 km BGL, where the pore fluid is hypersaline. Here, pore-scale permeability becomes progressively dominant with increasing lithostatic load. Notably, this work investigates a sandstone aquifer of fluvial origin at investigation depths consistent with highly enthalpy geothermal reservoirs (~0.7-1.1 km). At such depths, intergranular flow dominates in unfaulted areas with only minor contribution by bedding plane fractures. However, extensional faults represent preferential flow pathways, due to presence of high connective open fractures. Therefore, such faults may (1) drive nuclear waste contaminants towards the highly permeable shallow (< 150 m BGL) zone of the aquifer, and (2) influence fluid recovery in geothermal fields.

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“…Recently Paradis and Lefebvre (2013) and Paradis et al (2014Paradis et al ( , 2015 analysed synthetic cross-hole slug test data using a model for over-damped observation well responses. The need, therefore, still exists to analyse field data and characterize high permeability heterogeneous unconfined aquifers using cross-hole slug tests where source and observation well inertial effects may not be neglected.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling cross-hole slug tests in an unconfined aquifer

Malama

Kuhlman

Brauchler

et al. 2016

Journal of Hydrology

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A modified version of a published slug test model for unconfined aquifers is applied to cross-hole slug test data collected in field tests conducted at the Widen site in Switzerland. The model accounts for water-table effects using the linearised kinematic condition. The model also accounts for inertial effects in source and observation wells. The primary objective of this work is to demonstrate applicability of this semi-analytical model to multi-well and multi-level pneumatic slug tests. The pneumatic perturbation was applied at discrete intervals in a source well and monitored at discrete vertical intervals in observation wells. The source and observation well pairs were separated by distances of up to 4 m. The analysis yielded vertical profiles of hydraulic conductivity, specific storage, and specific yield at observation well locations. The hydraulic parameter estimates are compared to results from prior pumping and single-well slug tests conducted at the site, as well as to estimates from particle size analyses of sediment collected from boreholes during well installation. The results are in general agreement with results from prior tests and are indicative of a sand and gravel aquifer. Sensitivity analysis show that model identification of specific yield is strongest at late-time. However, the usefulness of late-time data is limited due to the low signal-to-noise ratios.Comment: 6 figures, 2 table

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Field characterization and data integration to define the hydraulic heterogeneity of a shallow granular aquifer at a sub-watershed scale

Cited by 14 publications

References 61 publications

Resolution analysis of tomographic slug test head data: Two‐dimensional radial case

Resolution analysis of tomographic slug test head data: Two‐dimensional radial case

Characterization of a fluvial aquifer at a range of depths and scales: the Triassic St Bees Sandstone Formation, Cumbria, UK

Modeling cross-hole slug tests in an unconfined aquifer

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