7-1

GEOG415

Lecture 7: Groundwater

Importance
World: Groundwater (GW) represents 97 % of all unfrozen
fresh water.
Canada: 24 % of the population relies on GW.
Western Canada: 20 % in Manitoba
45 % in Saskatchewan
26 % in Alberta
relies on GW.
Most rural communities rely entirely on GW.
What is GW used for?

License?
5100 wells licensed in Alberta at an average rate of 120 m3 d-1.

Characteristics of GW
Stable reliable source
Slow once contaminated, it is very difficult to clean up.

All statistics on Prairie Provinces listed in this page were reported by Maathuis and Thorleifson (2000.
Potential impact of climate change on prairie groundwater supplies: Review and current knowledge.
Saskatchewan Research Council Publication, 11304-2E00).

7-2

Definitions and terminology

tension
water table
pressure

unsaturated zone
vadose zone
capillary fringe
phreatic zone
(saturated zone)

Water table generally is a subdued replica of land surface.

Discharge area valleys and depressions (localized)
Recharge area uplands (distributed over large area)

Dunne and Leopold (1978, Fig. 7-1)

7-3

What does recharge really mean?

Time scale?
Depth?

water-table depth (m)

1994

1995

1996

1997

1
2
3
4
5

Water table in the St. Denis National Wildlife Area, SK.

Aquifer: large enough size, significant porosity, high flow rate.

Aquiclude : very low flow rate, also called confining layer.

Dunne and Leopold (1978, Fig. 7-3)

7-4

Hydraulic head = elevation + pressure head

h=z+p
Hydraulic head is also called piezometric potential.
water flows along the direction of decreasing potential.
i.e. normal to equipotential lines.

Dunne and Leopold (1978, Fig. 7-4)

Artesian condition: hydraulic head in a confined aquifer is

above the ground surface.

Dunne and Leopold (1978, Fig. 7-5)

7-5

Water-table well and piezometer

piezometer

The water level in a piezometer

represents hydraulic head (h) at the
screen.
h=z+p

p=?

WT well
z = 515
510

508

z=?
490

At the water table, p = ?

h=?

What is the vertical flow direction?

This diagram shows hydraulic head (piezometric potential) in

a confined aquifer, responding to recharge and discharge.
compare this to WT fluctuations in page 7-3.
Magnitude of fluctuation?

piezometric potential (m)

Timing?
510

Dalmeny aquifer, north of Saskatoon.

509

WT

508
507
506
505

70

80

85

Year

90

95

00

7-6

Groundwater storage
Porosity = void volume / total volume
When the material is saturated, water content = porosity.

(a) well-sorted sediments. (b) poorly sorted sediments. (c)

sediments with porous pebbles. (d) reduced porosity by
mineral deposition. (e) secondary porosity by solution opening.
(f) secondary porosity by fractures.
Domenico and Schwartz (1998. Physical and chemical hydrogeology. John Wiley, New York, Fig. 2.1)

Primary porosity of unconsolidated

sediments is high. (See DL, Table 7-1)
Secondary porosity in rocks is highly
variable, but generally much smaller.
(DL, Table 7-2).

Material
Soils
Clays
Sands
Gravel
Glacial till

Is all water in the pores available for extraction?

Porosity
0.30-0.50
0.45-0.55
0.30-0.45
0.25-0.40
0.25-0.45

7-7

Specific yield
When the water table (WT) is lowered in a sediment, some
water is retained in the sediment.
gravel
a

silt
a

The amount of water

drained per unit drop of
WT is referred to as
specific yield (Sy).
Sy = b/a

For gravel,
Sy porosity

How is specific yield related to field capacity?

Dunne and Leopold (1978, Fig. 7-7)

Is specific storage applicable to confined aquifer?

7-8

Storativity
Groundwater storage of confined aquifer is related to the
compression and expansion of pore spaces.
Consider saturated sand in a
container with a movable top
plate.
The water-sand mixture may be viewed as a
water-spring system. Spring represents the
solid skeleton of the sediments.

load

What is supporting the load?

Suppose we extract a small volume of water.

water

What will happen to the spring? Pressure of water?

Storativity (S) is defined as:
volume of water pumped per area (m3/m2 = m)
S=
amount of pressure head drop in the aquifer (m)
S is proportional to the thickness (y, m) and compressibility
(, m2 N-1) of the aquifer.
S = g y
= 1000 kg m-3
g = 9.8 m s-2
Typical values of ranges from 10-6 (soft clay) to 10-8 (sands).

7-9

Example:
A confined sand aquifer has an area of 20 km2 and an average
thickness of 10 m. If there was no recharge, what would
pumping 1000 m3 of water cause to the average pressure head
in the aquifer?

1000 m3, is this a large amount of water?

Average water consumption in rural area = 0.4 L d-1 person-1
Aquifers are almost always recharged. The key to sustainable
groundwater extraction is in keeping the rate of extraction
sufficiently small.
How?
Most aquifers used for large-scale water supply are confined
aquifers. Why?

7-10

Groundwater flow
Driving force?
Resistance?

Darcys law

u=K

h
l

z = 0, sea level

u: flow rate per area (m3 s-1 per m2 = m s-1), also called
specific discharge.
K: hydraulic conductivity (m s-1)
h/l: hydraulic gradient
In this notation, hydraulic gradient is always positive.
The flow direction is always toward the lower head.
Hydraulic conductivity reflects the properties of both the fluid
and the porous material.
Fluid property:
Material property:

7-11

The material property is represented by intrinsic permeability

(k, m2). As the unit suggests, intrinsic permeability is related
to the 2nd power of the pore radius (see also page 6-2).
The relation between K and k is:
g
K =k
= 1000 kg m-3

g = 9.8 m s-2

Viscosity of water () is 0.001 N m-2 s at 20 C, and it

increases with decreasing temperature (see DL, Table 7-4).
Note that 1 poise = 0.1 N m-2 s = 0.1 kg m-1 s-1.
Coefficient of permeability, used by DL, is rarely seen in the
modern hydrology literature.
The diagram below shows the ranges of intrinsic permeability
(k) and hydraulic conductivity (K) commonly observed in
unconsolidated sediments.
Silty sand

Shale

Clean sand

Unweathered marine clay

Gravel

Glacial till
Silt, loess

k 10-20 10-19 10-18 10-17 10-16 10-15 10-14 10-13 10-12 10-11 10-10 10-9 10-8 10-7
(m2)
K 10-13 10-12 10-11 10-10 10-9 10-8 10-7 10-6 10-5 10-4 10-3 10-2 10-1 1
(m/s)
Freeze and Cherry (1979. Groundwater, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Table 2-2)

7-12

Measurement of hydraulic conductivity

(1) Laboratory permeameter
Pack a column, measure flow rate,
and use Darcys law to calculate
hydraulic conductivity.
(2) Piezometer response test

h
heq

Raise the water level in a piezometer and

monitor the decay of water level to the
equilibrium position.
(3) Pumping test
Pump water from an aquifer and observe how fast and how
deep the hydraulic head goes down in the aquifer.
Scale of the measurement?

Transmissibility
The water-transmission property of aquifers (not aquifer
materials) is given by transmissibility (T, m2 s-1), defined as:
T = Ky
where y is the aquifer thickness.
Transmissibility is usually determined for large volumes of
aquifer in situ by a pumping test.

7-13

The flow rate Q (m3 s-1) in a cross section of the aquifer is

given by specific discharge (u) multiplied by the area.
u

Q = wyu = wyK h/l

= wT h/l

y
w

The product of transmissibility and hydraulic gradient gives

the flow per unit width of the aquifer q (m2 s-1).
q = Q/w = T h/l
Transmissibility is highly variable. Why?

Dunne and Leopold (1978, Fig. 7-9)

7-14

Flow model in unconfined aquifers

The thickness of unconfined aquifer is not well defined. Why?

In this case, we set the datum of elevation at the bottom of the

aquifer, instead of sea level.
The average saturated thickness (yav)of the aquifer?
q = yavu =

Dunne and Leopold (1978, Fig. 7-15)

This is called Dupuit method. Assumptions are:

(1) Horizontal flow
(2) Impermeable base
(3) Uniform velocity in vertical sections

7-15

Example:
Hydraulic conductivity of fluvial sand is 10-4 m/s.

elevation (m)

Groundwater flow rate per unit length of stream section?

980

977

970

975
fluvial sand
clay-rich till

960
0

100
distance (m)

200

7-16

Flow net
The diagram shows the distribution of hydraulic head (h) on
an alluvial fan. Flow lines are drawn normal to equipotential
lines. The region between two flow lines are called flow tube.
What is the flow rate (q, m3 s-1) in each tube?

Flow lines are drawn so

that w l.

Dunne and Leopold (1978, Fig. 7-16)

What is the total flow rate Q?

7-17

Geologic relations of groundwater

Valley alluvium good unconfined aquifer
used as filter for pumping stream water
Fractured rock widely used, but occurrence is sporadic
need to locate fractured zones. How?
Sand/gravel layers in sedimentary sequence most common
aquifers

Tertiary Paskapoo Formation is an

alteration of shale and sandstone
(outcrop at Edworthy park, Fish
Creek Park, etc.)

Extent of Paskapoo Fm.

The sandstone units in Paskapoo

Formation is commonly used as
aquifers in southern Alberta.

Maathuis and Thorleifson (2000, Fig. 22)

The thickness of glacial till is much greater in Saskatchewan

(see the figure in the next page). Sand/gravel lenses in
otherwise clay-rich till complexes provides groundwater are
commonly used by rural communities in the prairies.

7-18

Maathuis and Thorleifson (2000, Fig. 15)

7-19

Groundwater-surface water interaction

In most humid regions streams receive the discharge of
groundwater, and are called gaining stream.
Streams that recharge groundwater are called losing stream.
gaining stream

losing stream

Dunne and Leopold (1978, Fig. 7-19)

Groundwater has important ecological functions:

(1) sustaining baseflow
(2) stabilize temperature
(3) supply nutrients
(4) support stream-side (riparian) vegetation

7-20

Effects of pumping
Pumping induces drawdown of water table or hydraulic
head. As a result a cone of depression forms around the
pumping well. Higher pumping rates induce larger, deeper
cones.

Dunne and Leopold (1978, Fig. 7-21)

Implications?

7-21

Groundwater budget
Input - Output = Change of storage
Input?
Output?
Storage?
In long term, the storage change is negligible:
Input = Output
Safe yield is defined as the amount of water that can be
extracted from the aquifer without causing undesirable effects.
Read Sophocleous (1997, attached) for recent discussion on
safe yield.

7-22