GROUNDWATER FLOW

Once the water has joined the aquifer, it doesn’t stop there. The groundwater slowly
moves through the spaces and cracks between the soil particles on its journey to lower
elevations. This movement of water underground is called groundwater flow.
In short, yung groundwater flow ay ang pag galawa ng tubig sa ilalim ng lupa.

Eventually, after years of underground movement, the groundwater comes to a

discharge area where it enters a lake or stream and becomes surface water. There, the
water will once again be evaporated and begin the cycle again. Water has been
transported through the water cycle for millions of years and will continue this cycle
forever. In the water cycle, water is constantly on the move.

Nakikita natin yung water sa paligid natin as lakes, rivers, ice, snow o hindi naman
kaya ay ulan. Mayroon din namang tubig na hindi natin nakikita which is the water
existing in the ground. And even though groundwater is unseen, it is moving below
our feet right now. Dahil parte sya ng  water cycle, groundwater is a major
contributor to flow in many streams and rivers and has a strong influence on river and
wetland habitats for plants and animals. Tayong mga tao ang mga pangunahing
gumagamit ng groundwater sa loob ng hindi mabilang na taon hanggang sa
kasalukuyan, ginagamit natin ito bilang ating inumin maging na rin sa irigasyon na
siyang napapakinabangan natin sa pagpapatubo ng iba’t ibang gulay, palay at
halaman.

Next slide naman natin. Narinig nyo na ba or nabasa yung tanong na ito? rivers of
water flowing underground? Sa tingin ninyo ba ay totoo it? Actually, yung river water
flowing underground ay walang katotohanan. Even though there are some caverns,
lava and ice tubes, and horizontal springs that can carry water, the vast majority of
underground water occupies the spaces between rocks and subsurface material.
Generally, water underground is more like water in a sponge. It occupies the spaces
between soil and rock particles. A t a certain depth below the land surface, the spaces
between the soil and rock particles can be totally filled with water, resulting in
an aquifer from which groundwater can be pumped and used by people.
Dito sa figure na ito,
Some of the precipitation that falls onto the land infiltrates into the ground to become
groundwater. If the water meets the water table (below which the soil is saturated), it
can move both vertically and horizontally. Water moving downward can also meet
more dense and water-resistant non-porous rock and soil, which causes it to flow in a
more horizontal fashion, generally towards streams, the ocean, or deeper into the
ground.

As the figure shows, the direction and speed of groundwater movement is determined
by the various characteristics of aquifers and confining layers of subsurface rocks
(which water has a difficult time penetrating) in the ground.

Next naman is Water moving below ground depends on the permeability (how easy or
difficult it is for water to move)
For groundwater to be able to get into a rock with good porosity it must also have
good permeability. For a rock to be permeable and for water to move through it, the
pore spaces between the grains in the rock must be connected. Permeability is
therefore a measure of the ability of water to move through a rock

and on the porosity (the amount of open space in the material) of the subsurface rock.
While yung Porosity naman, it determines the amount of water that a rock or sediment
can contain. In sediments or sedimentary rocks the porosity depends on grain size, the
shapes of the grains, degree of sorting, and the degree of cementation.

If the rock has characteristics that allow water to move relatively freely through it,
then groundwater can move significant distances in a number of days. But
groundwater can also sink into deep aquifers where it takes thousands of years to
move back into the environment, or even go into deep groundwater storage, where it
might stay for much longer periods.

So for Rate of Groundwater flow

The rate of groundwater flow depends on the permeability kagaya nga ng sinabi ko
kanina permeability is the size of the spaces in the soil or rocks and how well the
spaces are connected. Depende din sa hydraulic head or also known as (water
pressure) yung rate ng groundwater flow.

For our next slide naman, we will talk about Unsaturated zone

The unsaturated zone is the portion of the subsurface above the groundwater table.
The soil and rock in this zone contains air as well as water in its pores.

Example-Kung pumupunta ka sa labas ng bakuran nyo, or di naman kaya ay sa forest

or mga parke at naisipan mong mag hukay, mapapansin mo na yung lupa ay medyo
basa pero hindi sya saturated by water. Ibig sabihin lang non na some of the pore
space in the soil is occupied by water, and some of the pore space is occupied by air.
Pag usapan naman natin ngayon yung saturated zone.

Area below the water table in which the soil is completely saturated with
groundwater.

Kung naman nag hukay ka ng mas malalim pa, you would get to the point where all of
the pore spaces are 100% filled with water and the bottom of your hole would fill up
with water, bali yung pinaka ilalim ng nahukay mong is may tubig na. Yung level of
water sa nahukay mo nayon represents the water table, which is the surface of
the saturated zone.

In this Figure:

A cross-section of a typical hillside with an unconfined aquifer is illustrated. In areas

with topographic relief, the water table generally follows the land surface, but tends to
come closer to surface in valleys, and intersects the surface where there are streams or
lakes. The water table can be determined from the depth of water in a well that isn’t
being pumped. In this case, most of the hillside forms the recharge area, where water
from precipitation flows downward through the unsaturated zone to reach the water
table. The area at the stream or lake to which the groundwater is flowing is
a discharge area.

What makes water flow from the recharge areas to the discharge areas? Kung
matatandaan ninyo sa mga recent reports natin, water is flowing in pores ang ibig
sabihin ng pores ay( gaps between particles) where there is friction, which means it
takes work to move the water. There is also some friction between water molecules
themselves, which is determined by the viscosity( yung viscosity naman ay yung
lagkit) . Water has a low viscosity, but friction is still a factor. All flowing fluids are
always losing energy to friction with their surroundings. Water will flow from areas
with high energy to those with low energy. Recharge areas are at higher elevations,
where the water has high gravitational energy. It was energy from the sun that
evaporated the water into the atmosphere and lifted it up to the recharge area. The
water loses this gravitational energy as it flows from the recharge area to the
discharge area.

In Figure recently(balik tayo sa recent slide natin), the water table is sloping; that
slope represents the change in gravitational potential energy of the water at the water
table. The water table is higher under the recharge area (90 m) and lower at the
discharge area (82 m). Imagine how much work it would be to lift water 8 m high in
the air. That is the energy that was lost to friction as the groundwater flowed from the
top of the hill to the stream.

Isunod naman nating pag usapan yung Darcy’s Equation. In 1856, French engineer
Henri Darcy carried out some experiments from which he derived a method for
estimating the rate of groundwater flow based on the hydraulic gradient and the
permeability of an aquifer, expressed using K, the hydraulic conductivity. Darcy’s
equation, which has been used widely by hydrogeologists ever since

V = K * i
(where V is the velocity of the groundwater flow, K is the hydraulic conductivity,
and i is the hydraulic gradient).

Para mas maintindihan natin yung susunod na pag uusapan natin, let us define
first what is Karst is a type of landscape where the dissolving of the bedrock has
created sinkholes, sinking streams, caves, springs, and other characteristic features.
Karst is associated with soluble rock types such as limestone, marble, and gypsum.

It’s critical to understand that groundwater does not flow in underground streams, nor
does it form underground lakes. With the exception of karst areas, with caves in
limestone, groundwater flows very slowly through granular sediments, or through
solid rock that has fractures in it. Flow velocities of several centimetres per day are
possible in significantly permeable sediments with significant hydraulic gradients. It
is not uncommon for groundwater to flow at velocities of a few millimetres to a few
centimetres per year. 
Kagaya nga ng pinag uusapan natin kanina, groundwater does not flow in straight
lines. It flows from areas of higher hydraulic head to areas of lower hydraulic head,
and this means that it can flow “uphill” in many situations. Kagaya ng ipinapakita sa
figure. The dashed orange lines are equipotential,  meaning lines of equal pressure.
The blue lines are the predicted groundwater flow paths. The dashed lines red lines
are no-flow boundaries, meaning that water cannot flow across these lines. That’s not
because there is something there to stop it, but because there’s no pressure gradient
that will cause water to flow in that direction.

Groundwater flows at right angles to the equipotential lines in the same way that
water flowing down a slope would flow at right angles to the contour lines. The
stream in this scenario is the location with the lowest hydraulic potential, so the
groundwater that flows to the lower parts of the aquifer has to flow upward to reach
this location. It is forced upward by the pressure differences, for example, the
difference between the 112 and 110 equipotential lines.

Next slide naman is another figure ulit. Groundwater that flows through caves,
including those in karst areas — where caves have been formed in limestone because
of dissolution — behaves differently from groundwater in other situations. Caves
above the water table are air-filled conduits, and the water that flows within these
conduits is not under pressure; it responds only to gravity. In other words, it flows
downhill along the gradient of the cave floor. Many limestone caves also extend
below the water table and into the saturated zone. Here water behaves in a similar way
to any other groundwater, and it flows according to the hydraulic gradient and
Darcy’s law.

https://youtu.be/a1BWyMz3XiE
https://youtu.be/yE68PklhO38
https://youtu.be/-T_TR6CvfYU
https://youtu.be/kvZMosn8ZXA