Well catchments and time‐of‐travel zones in aquifers with recharge

Lerner, David N.

doi:10.1029/92wr01170

Cited by 49 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Groundwater models play an important role in decision-making processes (Reichert and Pahl, 1999), especially in the context of better characterization of parameter distributions and prediction of dynamic behavior of a given system. Groundwater models are helpful tools to define well capture zones based on hydrogeological and water supply operation data (e. g., Kinzelbach et al, 1992;Lerner, 1992). They allow one to study the sensitivity of the observed system with respect to changing parameters and conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of aquifer heterogeneity within a well capture zone, comparison of model data with field experiments: A case study from the river Wiese, Switzerland

Regli

Rauber²,

Huggenberger

2003

Aquat. Sci.

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This paper describes two groundwater models simulating a well capture zone in a heterogeneous aquifer located near an infiltrating river. A deterministic, largescaled groundwater model (1.8 ¥ 1.2 km) is used to simulate the average behavior of groundwater flow and advective transport. It is also used to assign the boundary conditions for a small-scaled groundwater model (550 ¥ 400 m) which relies on stochastically generated aquifer properties based on site-specific drill core and georadar data. The small-scaled groundwater model is used to include the large subsurface heterogeneity at the location of interest. The stochastic approach in the small-scaled groundwater model does not lead to a clearly defined well capture zone, but to a plane representation of the probability of a certain surface location belonging to the well capture zone. The models were applied to a study site, which is located in an area of artificial groundwater recharge and production, in Lange Erlen near Basel, Northwestern Switzerland. The groundwater at this site contributes to the city's drinking water supply, and the site serves as a recreational area to the population of Basel. The river is channelized, but there are initiatives to restore the riverbank to more natural conditions. However, they conflict with the requirements of groundwater protection, especially during flood events. Therefore, a river section of 600 m in the vicinity of an unused and disconnected drinking water well was restored to study changes in the Aquatic Sciences groundwater flow regime depending on hydrologic variations, water supply operation data, progress of river restoration, and subsurface heterogeneity. The results of the groundwater models are compared with data from two tracer experiments using Uranine and the natural Radon isotope Rn-222, and with physical, chemical, and microbiological data sampled in monitoring wells between the river and the drinking water well. The groundwater models document significant variations regarding the dimension of the well capture zone depending on changing boundary conditions and the variability of the hydraulic aquifer properties. The knowledge of the subsurface heterogeneity is important to evaluate transport times and distances of microorganisms from the infiltrating river or the riverbank to the drinking water well. The data from the monitoring wells show that chemical and microbiological processes predominantly occur in the hyporheic interstitial zone and the riverbank within a range of a few meters up to a few 10s of meters from the river. The methods presented here can be used to define and evaluate groundwater protection zones in heterogeneous aquifers associated with infiltration from rivers under changing boundary conditions, and under the uncertainty of subsurface heterogeneity. Furthermore, they allow one to study the sitespecific operational alternatives associated with river restoration.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of aquifer heterogeneity within a well capture zone, comparison of model data with field experiments: A case study from the river Wiese, Switzerland

Regli

Rauber²,

Huggenberger

2003

Aquat. Sci.

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“…Bhatt [1993] investigated the influence of the main aquifer properties on the transverse and longitudinal extent of a capture zone in a confined aquifer. The influence of recharge was investigated by Lerner [1992], who derived analytical equations for the isochrones in two different, recharged aquifer systems. Kinzelbach et al [1992] studied well catchments in a recharged aquifer in both two and three spatial dimensions.…”

Section: -1297/98/98 Wr-0155250900mentioning

confidence: 99%

Stochastic determination of well capture zones

Leeuwen¹,

Stroet²,

Butler³

et al. 1998

Water Resources Research

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Abstract. A stochastic approach is adopted for characterizing the uncertainty in well capture zones in heterogeneous formations. Transmissivity is modeled as a random space function and a Monte Carlo approach is used to infer the probability distribution of the resulting stochastic capture zones. Through several numerical experiments, the influence of the statistical parameters of transmissivity variation on the extent of uncertainty in the location of the capture zone is investigated. Two aquifer models are considered: a fully confined aquifer and a leaky-confined aquifer receiving recharge from above. A connection is made with previous work on transport theory, and the statistical parameters of the capture zone probability distribution are compared with those of a solute concentration plume.

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“…Bear and Jacobs [1965] derived the general equation of isochrones for flow toward a fully penetrating, steady state well in an infinite, homogeneous, and isotropic confined aquifer. Lerner [1992] extended this to investigate the influence of a spatially homogeneous recharge on well catchments in two dimensions. Kinzelbach et al [1992] determined isochrone shapes in both two and three dimensions in a quasi-homogeneously recharged aquifer and provided a dimensionless number to determine whether a two-dimensional approximation of the flow field is appropriate or not.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stochastic capture zone delineation within the generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation methodology: Conditioning on head observations

Feyen¹,

Beven²,

Smedt³

et al. 2001

Water Resources Research

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Abstract. A stochastic methodology to evaluate the predictive uncertainty in well capture zones in heterogeneous aquifers with uncertain parameters is presented. The approach is based on the generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation methodology. The hydraulic conductivity is modeled as a random space function allowing for the uncertainty that stems from the imperfect knowledge of the parameters of the correlation structure. Parameters are sampled from prior distributions and are used for the generation of a large number of hydraulic conductivity fields, which are subsequently used to solve the groundwater flow equation. A likelihood is calculated for every simulation, based on some goodness-of-fit measure between simulated heads and available observations. Using inverse particle tracking, a capture zone is determined which is assigned the likelihood calculated for that particular simulation. Statistical analysis of the ensemble of all simulations enables the predictive uncertainty of the well capture zones to be defined. Results are presented for a hypothetical test case and different likelihood definitions used in the conditioning process. The results show that the delineated capture zones are most sensitive to the mean hydraulic conductivity and the variance, whereas the integral scale of the variogram is the parameter with the smallest influence. For all likelihood measures the prior uncertainty is reduced considerably by introducing the observation heads, but the reduction is most effective for the very selective likelihood definition. The method presented can be used in real applications to quantify the uncertainty in the location and extent of well capture zones when little or no information is available about the hydraulic properties, through the conditioning on head observations.

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Well catchments and time‐of‐travel zones in aquifers with recharge

Cited by 49 publications

References 8 publications

Analysis of aquifer heterogeneity within a well capture zone, comparison of model data with field experiments: A case study from the river Wiese, Switzerland

Analysis of aquifer heterogeneity within a well capture zone, comparison of model data with field experiments: A case study from the river Wiese, Switzerland

Stochastic determination of well capture zones

Stochastic capture zone delineation within the generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation methodology: Conditioning on head observations

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