Hydrology - C E 302

Prof. Dr. Oral YAĞCI

WEEK 5-6: Groundwater
Adnan Menderes Üniversitesi, Mühendislik Fakültesi, İnşaat Mühendisiliği Bölümü
 Distribution of Earth’s
Water

Fresh water in rivers

0.03 x 0.003 x 0.02 = 0.0000018 =(less than 2 in a million)

REFERENCE: United States Geological Survey

( USGS )
Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI
A part of the precipitation falling on the earth’s surface
seeps into the soil by gravitation, capillary and molecular
forces (surface tension). This is called infiltration.

The force of attraction between molecules of the same kind is known as cohesion.

The force of attraction between unlike molecules is called adhesion.

Capillary action, or capillarity, is the ability of a liquid to flow in narrow spaces

without the assistance of, and in opposition to external forces like gravity.

Watch videos on Youtube Capilarity

Surface Tension & Capillarity-1

3
Groundwater is usually quality
water filtered naturally,
free of smells and flavors, constant
temperature and chemical
composition.

Geohydrology studies the distribution, properties,

and motion of groundwater.
Terminology
:
Water infiltrating into the soil first enters the unsaturated zone where both air
and water exists in the pores of soil.

Water percolating deeper reaches the saturated zone.

The upper surface of this saturated zone where the pressure of water in the
pores is atmospheric is called the water table.

Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI

Right above the water table, there is a capillary fringe where
water rises by capillary stresses. Although this zone is almost
saturated, the pressure of water is negative.

Capilarry action occurs

because of inter-molecular
attractive forces between
the liquid and solid
surrounding surfaces.
Streams above the water table
feed the grounwater (influent
streams), whereas streams that
are lower are fed by the
groundwater (effluent- see
Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI
figure above).
 Surface water and groundwater
is always interconnected.

In dry regions, streams do not

dry when they are fed by
groundwater.

Nearly 30 % of the water in

streams come from groundwater.

(Ref: Todd and Mays, 2005) Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI

a)Losing (Influent) Stream b) Gaining (Effluent) Stream

(Ref: Todd and Mays, 2005) Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI

http://web.arc.losrios.edu/~borougt/GroundwaterDiagrams.htm
Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI
 Mixing of surface water and
groundwater takes place in
hyporheic zone where
microbial activity and chemical
transformations commonly
are enhanced.
Larry W. Mays, 2012. _F06_02_04
Sometimes different cross-sections of the same river behave as
«losing stream» whilst the other sections behave as «gaining
stream».

Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI

Water in unsaturated zone is
called vadose (suspended)
zone. This zone is divided
into three subzones:

1) Soil moisture (Roots

of the plants can
reach)
2)Pelicular water (hold by
molecullar stresses around
the soil grains, water moves
downward by gravity)

3) Capillary fringe

Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI

Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI
Unsaturated Zone
In this zone water and air exist together.
Depth of this zone vary.
In marshes → NO unsaturated zone.
In very dry regions→300 m depth
Water in this zone cannot be withdrawn by wells.

Water motion in this zone can be either upward or downward

depending on the magnitude of capillary forces.

Pelicular water is attached to the grain by molecular adhesion

and cannot be removed by gravity.

In the fine grains, the surface area is larger and the ratio of
pelicular water is therefore higher.
Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI
Plants, by osmosis, can use a part of the soil moisture in the
unsaturated zone where their roots can reach.

Field capacity is the percetage of water that remain in the

unsaturated zone when the downward motion by gravity has
ended.

Soil moisture =Field capacity →1-5 days after the

precipitation

A part of this water that is attached to the surface of grains

cannot be removed by plants. This is called Hygroscopic water.

The percentage of water that plants cannot use is called wilting

point.
Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI
The variation of quantity of water in te unsaturated
zone
Saturated Zone (Unconfined and Confined aquifers)

Saturated zone is the formations whose pores are

fully saturated by groundwater.

Aquifer is the formation that contains sufficient

saturated permeable material to yield
significant quantities of water to wells and
springs.

Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI

 Unconfined (free surface) aquifers

• The upper limit of the groundwater is the water table.

• Saturated zone contact with the unsaturated zone.
• Atmospheric zone exist at the water table because there is
air in the pores of unsaturated zone.
• Water table corresponds to free surface.
• Hence, in such an aquifer, groundwater flow resembles the
free surface flow.

Ref: Todd and Mays, 2005

 Confined (pressurized, artesian) Aquifers
• These are confined from above
by an impervious layer.
• There is no free surface in
contact with the atmosphere.
• The flow in these aquifers
similar to pressurized flow in
pipes.
• The static water levels in wells
drilled into such an aquifer
make up the piezometric
surface, in analogy with the
piezometers in pipes.
 In some cases there
are two aquifers
on top of each
other.

An unconfined aquifer
may exist above the
impervious layer
which is the the upper
boundary of a lower
confined aquifer.

Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI

http://web.arc.losrios.edu/~borougt/GroundwaterDiagrams.htm

Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI

The percentage of water in an aquifer =porosity of the
aquifer

However, a large porosity does not necessarily mean that

much water can be extracted from aquifer because a part
of the water that is attached to the grains by molecular and
capillary forces can never be extracted.

Specific Yield: The ratio of the volume of water that CAN be

extracted to the total volume.

Specific Retention: The ratio of the volume of water that

CANNOT be extracted to the total volume
Specific Yield +Specific Retention=Porosity
Herein the point that you should note is that the sand and gravel
have the highest specific yield. Though the clay has the highest
porosity it has extremely low specific yield.

For fine grains→soil molecular forces ↗ (due to elevated

surface
area of grains); specific retention ↗; specific yiled↘
 Recharge of Groundwater

1. Precipitation
2. Influent (losing) streams
3. Seepage from irrigation ditches
4. Water that rises through faults from the
earth (negligibly small)
5. Condensation of water vapor in the air or
the soil [when air temperature drops
below the dew point (negligibly small)]
Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI
Precipitated water can reach the grounwater only
after all the requirements are satisfied.

This is possible only in heavy and long

duration precipitation.

Therefore groundwater is recharged with

certain time intervals.

Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI

The motion of groundwater is
generally very slow because of
high resistance by the soil grains,
and the time to equilibrium is very
long.

The flow will have high velocity

when there are large cracks and
holes in the soil, and equilibrium
is reached quickly.
Such large holes are found in
karstic region where water erodes
the limestones (southwest of
Turkey, the lakes region)
Ref: earthy-moony.blogspot.com
If there were no recharge of the
grounwater and no losses from it,
then the water table would
become horizantal like (just like
the surface of still water)
 Views
from
ANTALYA
DÜDEN

Düden Waterfalls in Antalya ref: http://uk.ask.com/wiki Ref: www.greenturkey.co.nz

 Types of gravity springs

c) Fracture artesian spring

a) Depression spring

b) Contact spring d) Solution tabular spring

Ref: Larry W. Mays, 2012

Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI

Losses from grounwater
1. Transpiration
2. Evaporation
3. When water table intersects the soil surface
4. Pumping and artesian outflow from wells.

Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI

A sinkhole formed in
Karapınar:

Concentration of
sinkholes is attributed
to a local lowering of
the water table
 Groundwater map
Groundwater in a basin can be determined from a
groundwater map.

Contour lines of the water table are drawn

using the information about the static water
levels measured in the wells. Groundwater
flow is normal to these lines.
 Groundwater Flow

Grounwater moves by gravity in the small, irregular,

interconnected pores among the grains of an aquifer.

The flow is from the points where the energy is

higher to lower.

The velocity is very small (V=1-2 m/year or 1-

2m/day) because due tho energy loss by friction.

Hence groundwater flow is almost always

laminar.
Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI
 Method: Macroscopic scale (instead of focusing
water molecules in detail).
Darcy law Vf=Q/A
Vf=KI Fictive (or filter) velocity

In reality flow takes place only in the

pores, therefore actual velocity Va is
higher than Vf.

Va=Q/A=Q/(pA)=Vf/p

Where;
p=porosity; I=piezometric gradient
(see figure 5.8); Q=discharge;
K=hydraulic conductivity
(permeability coef.). Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGC
I
K=[velocity/time] 𝑄
𝑇=
K=function {soil ; fluid} 𝐵𝐼
k=specific permeability
(soil properties)
𝑄 = 𝑚𝐵𝑉𝑓=mBKI
𝛾𝑘
𝐾= 𝜇
k=[length2] T=mK

Hydraulic characteristic Where;

of aquifer are sometimes
expressed by T= transmissivity
transmissivity (T) and
storage coefficient (Sc). B=width of the aquifer

Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI

Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI
 Flow in unsaturated zone
It is difficult to study the flow in the unsaturated zone, where
the flow occurs not only by gravity but also by molecular and
capillary forces.

Capillary tension (negative stress) in

K ↗ where soil moisture ↗ the saturated zone is below Patm.
because some of pores have air (i.e. K ↘ when capillary tension ↗
smaller cross-scetion for flow)
 Flows to wells
Grounwater is withdrawn by wells and used for
various purpose because it is usually abundant and good
quality.

A domestic
dug well with
rock curb,
concrete seal,
and hand
pump (Todd
and Mays,
2005)
Hollow-stem
auger drilling
(Todd and
Mays, 2005)
IMPORTANT: However it may be harmful to extract
too much water from an aquifer, in which case the
pumping expenses will increase with drop of the water
table, and salty water will enter the aquifer near the
coast.

Thus the amount of pumping should NOT exceed

a certain value, which is called safe yield.
Seawater Intrusion

Ref: www.lenntech.com
Battling Seawater Intrusion
 Factors affecting safe yield

1. Recharge in dry regions: Safe yield can

be computed from water budget. If a
certain value is exceeded, the
underground water storage will diminish
(i.e. intrusion).
2. Transmission capacity of soil.
3. Pollution of aquifer:

http://web.arc.losrios.edu/~borougt
/Groundwat erDiagrams.htm
Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI
 Artificial Recharging

1) Seepage
2) Spreading
3) Recharge
wells

wmi.dhigroup.com haki-rainwaterharvesting.blogspot.com
 Hydraulics of wells
Note that until the steady
Dupuit hypothesis: contions are attained the
• Velocity is horizantal at all water table will continue
points along a vertical, to drop!
• Velocity is uniform along a
vertical
• The length dL in the
expression for the hydraulic
gradient can be measured
horizantally instead of along
the piezometric line.
Although these assumptions
are not perfectly correct, they
give good results when the
water table curvature is not Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI
large
Unconfined aquifer

Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI

Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI
Confined Aquifer

Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI

Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI
 Detarmination of Hydraulic Conductivity

1)Permeameters

For constant head

permeameters

K = 𝑉𝑓 =
𝐼
𝑄𝐿 𝐴ℎ

For variable head

permeameters
𝐴𝐾ℎ = −𝑎 𝑑𝐻
Q=
a)Constant head b)Variable head 𝐿 𝑑𝑡
permeameters permeameters
Assoc. Prof. Oral
Ref: Todd and Mays, 2005 YAGCI
2) Field Tests
• Velocity method: A tracer which is injected to
aquifer is followed.
3) Potential method: Drops of water table at
the observation wells at various distances from
pumping well are measured and k is determined
by the methods given below:
Thiem Method
Theis Method
Assoc. Prof. Oral YAGCI