Geophysical characterisation of the groundwater–surface water interface

Abstract

Interactions between groundwater (GW) and surface water (SW) have important implications for water quantity, water quality, and ecological health. The subsurface region proximal to SW bodies, the GW-SW interface, is crucial as it actively regulates the transfer of nutrients, contaminants, and water between GW systems and SW environments. However, geological, hydrological, and biogeochemical heterogeneity in the GW-SW interface makes it difficult to characterise with direct observations. Over the past two decades geophysics has been increasingly used to characterise spatial and temporal variability throughout the GW-SW interface. Geophysics is a powerful tool in evaluating structural heterogeneity, revealing zones of GW discharge, and monitoring hydrological processes. Geophysics should be used alongside traditional hydrological and biogeochemical methods to provide additional information about the subsurface. Further integration of commonly used geophysical techniques, and adoption of emerging techniques, has the potential to improve understanding of the properties and processes of the GW-SW interface, and ultimately the implications for water quality and environmental health.

Is the Hyporheic Zone Relevant beyond the Scientific Community?

“…Subsequent research has showed the potential of this technique for estimating vertical exchanges by measuring thermal profiles with a higher depth resolution [72], or obtaining spatial flux patterns within the shallow streambed at relatively high resolution [73,74]. Combining FO-DTS with other techniques, such as thermal infrared reflectometry (TIR) [75] or geophysics [74,76,77] can provide insights into the impacts that the hydrogeological characteristics of the subsurface material can have on defining exchange patterns (i.e., to inform about the existence of different components of groundwater-surface water interactions, such as groundwater discharge, interflow, and local downwelling, depending on the hydrogeology) [74].…”

Estimating picking errors in near‐surface seismic data to enable their time‐lapse interpretation of hydrosystems

“…; McLachlan et al . ). They form a continuum which controls aquatic ecosystem along with water quality and quantity.…”

Hydrogeophysical Characterization of a Weathered-Fractured Aquifer System: A Case study of Olbanita, Lower Baringo Basin, Kenya Rift

“…Theories such as fractal transport are founded on knowledge of the probabilistic properties of the flow media [1] and [2]. As a potential measure of circumventing the high cost, [3] and [4] had conjectured that cheaper, minimally invasive and technically robust geophysical data ought to supplement hydraulic data. References [1] and [5] proposed a means of modeling groundwater flow dynamics based on crossover statistics of groundwater head fluctuations.…”