School of Environmental Engineering

UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA PERLIS

EAT 363/3 : Hydrology and Water Resources Engineering

GROUNDWATER
(Part 1)

SALWA BINTI MOHD ZAINI MAKHTAR

1
 Introduction
What is Groundwater?
• Groundwater is water found underground in the soil pore spaces and in the
fractures of rock formations.
• The depth at which soil pore spaces and fractures become completely saturated
with water is called the water table.

Sources of groundwater?
• Groundwater is derived from
precipitation and recharge from
surface water.
• It is the water that has infiltrated into
the soil directly from precipitation,
recharge from streams and other
natural water bodies.
 Classification of Groundwater
The groundwater is considered into
two zones;
Unsaturated (Aeration) Zone:
• It occurs above the water table.
• In this zone, the soil pores and rock
openings are generally unsaturated
and only partially filled with water.

Saturated Zone:
• It occurs below the water table.
• In this zone, all the soil pores and
rock openings are filled with water.
• This zone also known as
groundwater zone.
Classification of Subsurface water
Unsaturated
zone

Saturated
zone
A close-up of how water is stored in between underground rock particles
 Classification of Saturated Formation
(Water - Bearing Units)
• Although groundwater exists everywhere under the ground, some
parts of the saturated zone contain more water than others.
• The geologic formations are classified in relation to their
capacity to store and transmit the water.

• The geologic formations are classified into four categories:

1. Aquifer
2. Aquitard
3. Aquiclude
4. Aquifuge
 Comparison of Water-Bearing Units
Types of Hydraulic Properties
Geologic Examples
Formation Water Storage Water Transmit Water Yield
Sand, gravel or
Aquifer Yes Yes Yes fractured rock,
i.e., limestone

Aquitard Yes Yes Slow Sandy clay

Aquiclude Yes No No Clay

Granite, compact
Aquifuge No No No rock without any
fracture
 Aquifer
• An aquifer is a layer of porous
substrate that contains and
transmits groundwater.
• An aquifer is an underground
layer of water-bearing
permeable rock or
unconsolidated materials
(gravel, sand, or silt) from which
groundwater can be extracted
using a water well.
• Aquifers may occur at various
depths.
 Classification of Aquifer
Unconfined Aquifers:
• Also known as water table aquifer.
• An unconfined aquifer is one in which a free water surface
(water table) exists.
• Only the saturated zone of this aquifer is importance in
groundwater studies.
• Recharge takes place through infiltration of precipitation
(rainfall) from the ground surface.
• A well driven into an unconfined aquifer will indicate a static
water level.

Confined Aquifers:
• Also known as artesian aquifer.
• An aquifer which is confined between two impervious layers
such as aquitard or aquiclude.
• Recharge takes place only in the area where it is exposed
at the ground surface.
Confined and Unconfined Aquifers
Confined and Unconfined Aquifers
 Properties of Aquifer
POROSITY (n):
• Porosity or void fraction is a measure of the void or empty spaces
in a material.
• A fraction of the volume of voids over the total volume.
• It is expressed as
∀𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑠
𝑛=
∀𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙
• The value between 0 – 1, or as a
percentage between 0 – 100%.
• Porosity of surface soil typically
decreases as the particle size
increases.
 Properties of Aquifer
SPECIFIC YIELD (Sy):
• The actual volume of water that can be extracted by the force of gravity
from a unit volume of aquifer.
• Specific yield is a measure of the water available to wells.
• It is expressed either as a ratio or as a percentage of the volume of the
aquifer.
 Properties of Aquifer
PERMEABILITY (K):
• A measure of soil capacity to transmit water.
• The porosity of a soil affects how much water it can hold, it also
affects how quickly water can flow through the soil.
 Properties of Aquifer
TRANSMISSIBILITY (T):
• Consider an aquifer of unit width and thickness, B (i.e., depth of a fully
saturated zone).
• The transmissibility of an aquifer is related to its hydraulic conductivity
as follows:
𝑇 = 𝐾𝐵
• Where;
K is coefficient of permeability (m/s),
B is the thickness of aquifer (for confined aquifer) (m)
B = H, the saturated thickness of aquifer (for unconfined aquifer) (m)
 Ground Water Movement
Aquifer Discharge:
• Ground water moves relatively slowly through the aquifer rock.
• Consider a rectangular block of aquifer rock below the water
table.
• The block has horizontal width w, vertical thickness, h and
horizontal length, L.
• Consider that water is moving through the rock in the direction
parallel to the edges of length L and perpendicular to the cross
section with edge length w and h.
 Ground Water Movement…cont.
Aquifer Discharge:
• Since the water can move only through the connected pores, the
discharge Q of water through the cross section is

𝑄 = 𝐴𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑠 𝑣 Eq. 1

• Where, Apores is the total cross-sectional area of all connected pores

in the aquifer cross section and v is the speed of the water in the
pores.
• However, the Apores is difficult to measure directly in the field.
• The cross-sectional area A of the aquifer itself are more easily
determined, where; A = wh.
 Ground Water Movement…cont.
• By definition of the yield porosity, ny;
∀𝑦𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑑 = 𝑛𝑦 𝐿𝑤ℎ Eq. 2

• Total volume of all the connected pores can expressed as ∀𝑦𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑑 = 𝐴𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑠 𝐿
• The saturated aquifer cross-sectional area is A = wh
• Using these two equation, Eq. 2 becomes

𝐴𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑠 𝐿 = 𝑛𝑦 𝐴𝐿

𝐴𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑠 = 𝑛𝑦 𝐴 Eq. 3
 Ground Water Movement…cont.
• Substitute the Eq. 3 into Eq. 1 for the discharge gives
𝑄 = 𝑛𝑦 𝐴 𝑣 Eq. 4

• Rearrange; 𝑄 = 𝐴 𝑛𝑦 𝑣

• Then defined vD by 𝑣𝐷 = 𝑛𝑦 𝑣 Eq. 5

• To get for the discharge expression;
𝑄 = 𝐴𝑣𝐷 Eq. 6

• vD is known as Darcy speed, but it is not the actual speed at which

the water actually moves. It only the mathematical expression with
unit of speed.
Ground Water Movement…cont.

𝑄 = 𝐴𝑣

𝑄 = 𝐴 𝑛𝑦 𝑣
 #Example 1
An aquifer has a cross section with a horizontal width of 265 m,
and a vertical thickness below the water table of 42.0 m. The
water table is 36.0 m below the ground surface. Each day, 3340
m3 of water is discharged through the cross section. The aquifer
rock has an effective porosity of 27.1%.

Find;
(a) The Darcy’s speed
(b) The actual speed of the water as it passes through the aquifer.
 Ground Water Movement…cont.
Darcy’s Law:
• Darcy’s law stated that the Darcy’s speed vD is given by
𝐻
𝑣𝐷 = 𝐾 Eq. 7
𝐿

• Where, K is the hydraulic conductivity.

• vD unit in m/s in SI unit.
• Value of K is depends on the properties of the rock and on
properties of the liquid.
• Darcy’s law provide additional equation to describe the flow
 Ground Water Movement…cont.
• Eq. 7 can be combined with Eq. 6 to yield equation for the
discharge;
𝐻
𝑄 = 𝐾𝐴 Eq. 8
𝐿

• Darcy’s law also can expressed in term of the angle i (inclination

of the water table). Since i is small, therefore i = H/L. Eq. 8 can
now be written as

𝑄 = 𝐾𝐴𝑖 Eq. 9

• The quantity i or (H/L) is also known as the hydraulic gradient.

• The parameter of K also known as the coefficient of permeability.
 Ground Water Movement…cont.
• The ground surface slope down at a
small angle i from left to right.
• Usually the water table (WT) is parallel
to the ground surface, and falling a
vertical distance H over a horizontal
distance L.
• Assumption: the layer of impermeable
rock beneath the aquifer also slopes
down at the angle i.
• Figure shows the two wells have been
driven into the aquifer, piercing the WT
at point A and B.
• The time t needed for the groundwater to move from A to B can be measured by
dumping marked water into well at A and noting when it shows up at well B.
 Ground Water Movement…cont.
• The travel time from A to B is
given by
𝐴𝐵
𝑡=
𝑣

𝐴𝐵 = 𝐿2 + 𝐻 2

• Since, i is small, H2 << L2, so

that AB ≈ L.
• Therefore, the travel time from A
to B can be expressed as
𝐿
𝑡= Eq. 10
𝑣
 #Example 2
The aquifer shown on figure has a width of 1.7 km. Water takes 2.5 years to
move from the upper well to the lower. The hydraulic conductivity of the
aquifer is 31.0 m/day. Find; (a) the yield porosity of the aquifer, (b) the
volume of the water that passes any cross section in 3 weeks.
 #Question
The longitudinal and transverse cross sections of an unconfined aquifer are
shown in Figure 1. Water takes time 1.91 years to move from well A to well B.
The hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer rock is 135 m/day.

(a) Find the yield porosity, ny of

the aquifer rock.

(a) It is found that 8.42 x 105 m3

of water passes through any
cross section of the aquifer
in 2 weeks. Estimate the
width of the aquifer, w.

Figure 1