Water infiltration in an aquifer recharge basin affected by temperature and air entrapment

Abstract

Artificial basins are used to recharge groundwater and protect water pumping fields. In these basins, infiltration rates are monitored to detect any decrease in water infiltration in relation with clogging. However, miss-estimations of infiltration rate may result from neglecting the effects of water temperature change and air-entrapment. This study aims to investigate the effect of temperature and air entrapment on water infiltration at the basin scale by conducting successive infiltration cycles in an experimental basin of 11869 m 2 in a pumping field at Crepieux-Charmy (Lyon, France). A first experiment, conducted in summer 2011, showed a strong increase in infiltration rate; which was linked to a potential increase in ground water temperature or a potential dissolution of air entrapped at the beginning of the infiltration. A second experiment was conducted in summer, to inject cold water instead of warm water, and also revealed an increase in infiltration rate. This increase was linked to air dissolution in the soil. A final experiment was conducted in spring with no temperature contrast and no entrapped air (soil initially water-saturated), revealing a constant infiltration rate. Modeling and analysis of experiments revealed that air entrapment and cold water temperature in the soil could substantially reduce infiltration rate over the first infiltration cycles, with respective effects of similar magnitude. Clearly, both water temperature change and air entrapment must be considered for an accurate assessment of the infiltration rate in basins.

The Impact of Capillary Trapping of Air on Satiated Hydraulic Conductivity of Sands Interpreted by X-ray Microtomography

“…The authors explained this by entrapped air clogging of the largest pores. The effect of entrapped air on infiltration in the field was also confirmed by Alagna et al [26].…”

“…Hydraulic conductivity is a crucial parameter in all components of water cycle modeling, rainfall excess determination, water and solute transport in vadose zone as well as in recharge of groundwater [26,[45][46][47]. The impact of entrapped air on measured values of satiated hydraulic conductivity means that instead of a well-defined constant parameter, its value may vary in dependence on many factors, some of them described in this paper.…”

Integral transforms for three-dimensional pumping in confined, leaky, and unconfined aquifers

“…The water collected in wells near streams can reduce the flow in a stream through a process known as streamflow depletion. This problem has become particularly important in recent years, especially around densely populated regions, due to the significant increase in water resources demands for supplying large cities, large agricultural areas, and other uses, such as processing industries or mining activities (Knowling and Werner, 2016;Loizeau et al, 2017;Pastore et al, 2017). For this reason, regulatory agencies seek to establish the maximum groundwater pumping for wells located near streams.…”

Modeling of Artificial Groundwater Recharge by Wells: A Model Stratified Porous Medium

“…Infiltration wells are used to contribute to the evacuation of rains in urban areas and also as a mechanism to recharge aquifers in regions where they present an unsustainable abatement [1][2][3][4]. Their construction must be analyzed from several angles: objectives of artificial recharge, available technological options, chemical quality of the water, social factors, place, quantity of water to contribute, among others [5][6][7][8][9].…”