Introduction to Groundwater

Introduction
• About 30% of the freshwater resources exist in the form of groundwater.
• This forms a critical input for the sustenance of life and vegetation in arid zones.
Forms of Subsurface water
Water in the soil mantle is called subsurface water and is considered in two zones
1. Saturated zone
2. Aeration zone
Classification of subsurface water
Saturated Zone
• This zone, also known as groundwater zone, is the space where all the pores of the
soil are filled with water.
• The water table forms its upper limit and marks a free surface i.e., surface having
atmospheric pressure.
Zone of Aeration
• In this zone, the soil pores are only partially saturated with water.
• It has 3 subzones:
Soil water Zone
Capillary Fringe
Intermediate zone
Soil water Zone
This lies close to the ground surface in the major root band of the vegetation
from which the water is lost to the atmosphere by evapotranspiration.
Capillary Fringe
• In this, the water is held by capillary action
• The zone extends from the water table upwards to the limit of capillary
rise.
Intermediate zone
• This lies between the above-mentioned zones.
Saturated Formation
Saturated formations are classified into 4 categories
Aquifer
• An aquifer is a saturated formation of earth material which not only stores water but
yields it in sufficient quantity.
• Thus an aquifer transmits water relatively easily due to high permeability.
• Unconsolidated deposits of sand and gravel form good aquifers.
Aquitard
• It is a formation through which only seepage is possible and thus the yield is
insignificant to an aquifer
• It is partly permeable
• A sandy clay unit is an example of aquitard.
Aquiclude
• It is a geological formation which is essentially impermeable to the
flow of water.
• Clay is an example of an aquiclude.
Aquifuge
• It is a geological formation which is neither porous nor permeable.
• There is no interconnected openings and hence it can’t transmit water.
• Massive compact rock without any fractures is an aquifuge.
Aquifer
• An aquifer is a wet underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated
materials from which groundwater can be usefully extracted using a water well.
 AQUIFERS

• An unconfined aquifer is one which a free water surface i.e. water table exists.
• A confined aquifer also known as artesian aquifer is an aquifer which is confined
between two impervious beds such as aquiclude and acquifuge.
• A confined aquifer is called as a leaky aquifer if either or both of its confining
beds are aquitards.
 Water Table
• A water Table is the free water surface in an unconfined aquifer.
• The static level of a well penetrating an unconfined aquifer indicates the level of
the water table at that point.
• If the water table intersects the land surface, the groundwater comes out to the
surface in the form of springs.
• Sometimes a localized patch of impervious stratum can occur inside an
unconfined aquifer in such a way that it retains a water table above the general
water table. Such a water table retained around the impervious material is known
as perched water table.
• Streams which receive groundwater flow during low-flow period are called
effluent streams.
• Perennial streams are of this kind.

• Streams which contribute to the groundwater are known as influent streams.

• Intermittent rivers and streams during no-rain periods are of this kind.
Properties- Porosity
• Amount of pore space per unit volume of aquifer material

• Porosity is the ratio of the volume of voids to the total volume

• 0<n<1, although sometimes we express it as a percentage by

multiplying by 100
• Question: How would you measure this?
What does porosity depend on
• Packing
• Cubic Packing – Calculate the porosity….
What does porosity depend on
• Packing – what is we switch it up

VS.

Cubic vs Hexagonal vs Rhombohedral

(47.65%) (39.5%) (25.95%)

Heterogeneous Particle Sizes
• Size and Shape of Grains makes a difference
Typical Porosity Ranges
Specific Yield
• Specific yield (Sy) is the ratio of the volume of water that drains from
a saturated rock owing to the attraction of gravity to the total volume
of the saturated aquifer.
• Specific retention (Sr) is the rest of the water that is retained
Typical Specific Yields
Hydraulic Conductivity
• Henry Darcy – the father of groundwater hydrology
Hydraulic Conductivity
• Measure flowrate Q
to estimate specific
discharge (velocity)
q=Q/Area
• Observations
Darcy’s Law

Why does this minus sign exist?

Head drops with distance, which Hydraulic Conductivity

means that dh/dx is negative, but q
should be positive
Hydraulic Conductivity depends on both the
fluid and the porous medium
Coefficient of Permeability
• In a bed of packed beads the flow rate is proportional to the diameter
squared

• The flow rate is proportional to the specific weight of the fluid

• The flow rate is inversely proportional to the viscosity of the fluid

Therefore
2 
k  Cd 

Property of the porous medium

only called intrinsic permeability What drives the flow

Denoted ki with units m2 (or Darcy’s)

1 Darcy=1x10-8cm2 Property of the fluid only

C here is a constant with no dimensions

Typical Hydraulic Conductivities (for water)
Hazen Formula for Hydraulic Conductivity
• Recall from our
classification of soils
• Effective diameter d10
• Hazen proposed that
hydraulic conductivity is
given by
K=C (d10)2
This is for water!!!!
C – shape factor (see adjacent table)
d10 in cm
K is given in cm/s
C shape factor
Very fine sand: C=40-80
Fine sand: C=40-80
Medium sand: C=80-120
Coarse sand: C=80-120
(poorly sorted)
Coarse sand: C=120-50
(well sorted, clean)
This formula is potentially confusing
as it looks like permeability, but is
hydraulic conductivity – C has units….
Transmissibility
• We like to think about groundwater in 2-
dimensions (like a map).

• Therefore we like to define the permeability

over the depth of the aquifer (depth b)

• Tranmissivity
T=bK
How to Measure Permeability

Measure Volume V over time t

Hydraulic Conductivity is given by

Falling Head Permeameter
Volume flow rate in tube is same as in soil
sample

Solving this differential equation and rearranging

Stratification
More Generally
• N parallel layers, each N perpendicular to flow
with conductivity Ki of layers, each with
thickness bi conductivity Ki of
K1
thickness bi
K2
K1 K2 K3 K4
K3

KN
Numericals
Compressibility of Aquifers
Confined groundwater flow between two
water bodies
Unconfined flow by Dupit’s Assumption
 Unconfined flow with recharge

1-D Dupit’s flow with recharge