GROUNDWATER

 Definition: the science of the occurrence, distribution, and

movement of water below the surface of the earth.
(Todd,1980-2005)
 Geology / physical / chemical
The study of the laws governing the movement of subsurface
Groundwater water, the mechanical, chemical and thermal interaction of
this water with the porous solid, and the transport of energy
and chemical constitutions by the flow. (Domenico, 1990)
 Environmental Hydrogeology
Groundwater + Environment + human
  Invisible, valuable & natural resource
 moves slowly (few cm ~ few hundred m per year)

 A drink water source:

 97% world drinking water supply
 Many industries use GW (pulp, paper and textile
Facts about manufacturing, food processing and metal
Groundwater finishing etc.)

 A fragile resource
 Over-exploitation
 Contamination: landfills, industrial wastes, agri.
chemicals, improper uses, sewers/septic tanks,
accidental leakages etc
 Vertical

Groundwater
Distribution of
Phreatic Water Vadose Water
Zone of Saturation Zone of Aeration
Concept of  Aquifer: is defined as a saturated permeable
Aquifer, geologic unit that can transmit significant
Aquiclude and quantities of water under ordinary hydraulic
gradients.
Aquitard
  Unconfined aquifer - Also called a water-table
aquifer, is an aquifer which has the water table as
its upper boundary.

Types of  Confined aquifer - A confined aquifer (artesian,

pressure) is an aquifer that is bounded above and
Aquifer below by confining beds. Confined aquifers
generally occur at significant depth below the
ground surface.
 Aquitard: defined as a bed of low permeability along
an aquifer or A saturated but poorly permeable
stratum that impedes GW movement & does not yield
water freely to wells, that may transmit appreciable
water to or from adjacent aquifers and where
sufficiently think, may constitute and important GW
storage zone, example: sandy clay
 Aquiclude: a solid, impermeable area underlying or
overlying an aquifer. If the impermeable area overlies
the aquifer, pressure could cause it to become a
confined aquifer or A saturated but relatively
impermeable material that does not yield appreciable
quantities of water to wells, example: clay.
 Aquifuge – A relatively impermeable formation
neither containing nor transmitting water, example:
granite.
 Hydraulic Conductivity – the ability of soil/rock to
transmit water which, together with is ability to hold
water, constitute the most significant hydrological
properties (Fetter)
 The hydraulic conductivity of a soil is a measure of the
soil's ability to transmit water when submitted to a
hydraulic gradient
 An artesian aquifer is a confined aquifer containing
groundwater under positive pressure. This causes
the water level in a well to rise to a point where
hydrostatic equilibrium has been reached.
 A well drilled into such an aquifer is called an
artesian well. If water reaches the ground surface
under the natural pressure of the aquifer, the well is
called a flowing artesian well
 A spring is a concentrated discharged of
groundwater appearing at the ground surface as a
current flowing water.
 Seepage is a moist or wet place where water,
usually groundwater, reaches the earth's surface
from an underground aquifer.
  Groundwater is a part of the dynamic hydrologic
cycle, and water must somehow enter as well as
leave the subsurface. Water entering the
subsurface is called recharge.

 Recharge to the subsurface is generally through

Recharge and infiltration – percolation of surface water (from
rain, perennial streams, melting snow, urinating
discharge dogs, etc.) downward into the soil.

 As the water percolates down through the soil,

sediment, and rock, the percentage of the pore
space that is filled with water (or the degree of
saturation) increases until it reaches 100% (i.e.
complete saturation).
 Just as water enters the saturated zone, it must
eventually leave it. Movement of water out of
the saturated zone is called discharge.

 Natural discharge can be through a spring, into

the bed of a stream, lake or ocean, or via
evaporation directly from the water table.

 Pumping of groundwater through wells – holes

drilled into the ground for the purpose of
accessing subsurface fluids – is another way that
water discharges from the saturated zone.
  Groundwater is always flowing, and the direction of
flow is determined by the location of higher
groundwater elevation. Note, however, that
groundwater does not flow downhill; rather, it
flows from higher hydraulic heads (or higher water
elevation) to lower hydraulic heads.

Groundwater  The distribution of hydraulic heads in the saturated

Flow zone determines the direction in which the water
will flow.

 The speed with which groundwater flows, also

called the velocity or flux, is determined by the
difference in hydraulic head and the permeability
of the sediment or rock through which it flows.
  Porosity is a term which is used to describe an
important physical property of most materials
 The porosity of a material is determined by
measuring the amount of void space inside, and
determining what percentage of the total
volume of the material is made up of void space
Porosity  Porosity determines the total amount of water a
soil/sediment/rock will hold and varies from one
material to another.
 The greater the volume of pore spaces a material
contains, the higher its porosity and more water
it can hold.
  Closely related to porosity in that it reflects the
capacity of soil/sediment/rock to transmit water
and symbolizes as k
 Controlled by the size of the pores and the
degree to which they are interconnected.
Permeability
 Materials of larger size particle which are
consistently sorted will be more permeable.
 A soil/sediment/rock can have high porosity but
low permeability if the open spaces are not well
connected.
Thank You 