GROUNDWATER

Alicante, Krisha
Porlay, Renz Ray Albert
Prado, Jirah Angela
Quindoza, Julius
Groundwater

■ Water which can be found under the ground.

■ A vital source of water supply, especially in areas where dry summers or extended
droughts cause streamflow to stop.
■ Important to study and discuss groundwater since both surface water and
groundwater problems should be considered in planning for water resources
development.
■ Groundwater is fresh water (from rain or melting ice and snow) that soaks into the
soil and is stored in the tiny spaces (pores) between rocks and particles of soil.
Groundwater accounts for nearly 95 percent of the nation’s fresh water resources. It
can stay underground for hundreds of thousands of years, or it can come to the
surface and help fill rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, and wetlands. Groundwater can
also come to the surface as a spring or be pumped from a well. Both of these are
common ways we get groundwater to drink. About 50 percent of our municipal,
domestic, and agricultural water supply is groundwater.
Zones of Underground water

■ After the rain water may move downward through Zone of aeration.
■ Soil Moisture is the water in the upper layer of the zone of aeration
■ Zone of saturation where water moved to this region where the pores of the soil or
rock are filled with water.
■ Groundwater are the water in the zone of saturation
■ Above the zone of saturation is a capillary fringe in which the smaller pores contain
water lifted by capillary action from the zone of saturation.
■ Groundwater is found in two zones. The unsaturated zone, immediately below the
land surface, contains water and air in the open spaces, or pores. The saturated
zone, a zone in which all the pores and rock fractures are filled with water, underlies
the unsaturated zone. The top of the saturated zone is called the water table
(Diagram 1). The water table may be just below or hundreds of feet below the land
surface.
Underground water zones UNDERGROUND WATER OCCURS IN TWO DIFFERENT ZONES [ZONE
OFAERATION & ZONE OF SATURATION]

AERATION ZONE: the zone above the water table is known as the zone of aeration (unsaturated or
vadose zone). which occurs immediately below the land surface in most areas, contains both water and
air.
SATURATED ZONE: a zone in which all interconnected openings are full of water .Water in the saturated
zone is the only underground water that is available to supply wells and springs and is the only water to
which the name ground water is correctly applied Recharge of the saturated zone occurs by percolation of
water from the land surface through the unsaturated zone. The unsaturated zone is, therefore, of great
importance to ground-water hydrology. The unsaturated zone may be divided usefully into three parts: The
soil zone, the intermediate zone, and the upper part of the capillary fringe.
THE SOIL ZONE extends from the land surface to a maximum depth of a meter or two and is the zone
that supports plant growth the porosity and permeability of this zone tend to be higher than those of the
underlying material. the soil zone is underlain by the intermediate zone, which differs in thickness from
place to place depending on the thickness of the soil zone and the depth to the capillary fringe.
THE CAPILLARY FRINGE: the subzone between the unsaturated and saturated zones. the capillary
fringe results from the attraction between water and rocks. region above water table where water rises
due to capillary forces in the porous medium.
THE WATER TABLE: is the level in the saturated zone at which the hydraulic pressure is equal to
atmospheric pressure and is represented by the water level in unused wells. below the water table, the
hydraulic pressure increases with increasing depth.
Sources of Groundwater

■ Precipitation is the main source of groundwater, which may penetrate the soil
directly to the groundwater or may enter surface streams and percolate from these
channels to the groundwater.
■ Groundwater has the lowest priority on the water of precipitation.
■ Interception, depression storage, and soil moisture must be satisfied first before any
amount of water can percolate to the groundwater.
■ Only prolonged periods of heavy precipitation can supply large quantities of water for
groundwater recharge.
■ Other sources of groundwater include water from the deep in the earth which is
carried upward in intrusive rocks, and water which is trapped in sedimentary rocks
during their formation. The quantities of such water are small and they are often so
highly mineralized as to be unsuited for use.
 SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM
ILLUSTRATING THE OCCURRENCE
OF GROUNDWATER
Aquifers

■ Formation which contain and transmit groundwater

■ The amount of groundwater which can be obtained in any area depends on the
character of the underlying aquifer and the extent and frequency of recharge.
■ Specific yield – is the volume of water which will drain freely from the aquifer.
■ Aquifers are typically made up of gravel, sand, sandstone, or fractured rock, like limestone.
Water can move through these materials because they have large connected spaces that make
them permeable. The speed at which groundwater flows depends on the size of the spaces in
the soil or rock and how well the spaces are connected.
■ Groundwater can be found almost everywhere. The water table may be deep or shallow; and
may rise or fall depending on many factors. Heavy rains or melting snow may cause the water
table to rise, or heavy pumping of groundwater supplies may cause the water table to fall.

■ Groundwater supplies are replenished, or recharged, by rain and snow melt that seeps down
into the cracks and crevices beneath the land's surface. In some areas of the world, people face
serious water shortages because groundwater is used faster than it is naturally replenished. In
other areas groundwater is polluted by human activities.
■ Water in aquifers is brought to the surface naturally through a spring or can be
discharged into lakes and streams. Groundwater can also be extracted through a
well drilled into the aquifer. A well is a pipe in the ground that fills with
groundwater. This water can be brought to the surface by a pump. Shallow wells
may go dry if the water table falls below the bottom of the well. Some wells,
called artesian wells, do not need a pump because of natural pressures that
force the water up and out of the well.
■ In areas where material above the aquifer is permeable, pollutants can readily
sink into groundwater supplies. Groundwater can be polluted by landfills, septic
tanks, leaky underground gas tanks, and from overuse of fertilizers and
pesticides. If groundwater becomes polluted, it will no longer be safe to drink.
■ AN AQUIFER is a geologic unit that can store and transmit water at rates fast enough supply
reasonable amounts to wells. Unconsolidated sands and gravels, sandstones, limestones and
dolomites, basalt flows, and fractured plutonic and metamorphic rocks are examples of rock
units known to be aquifers. A confining layer is a geologic unit having little or no intrinsic
permeability.

■ Confining layers are sometimes subdivided into aquitards, quicludes, and aquifuges.
- an aquifuge is an absolutely impermeable unit that will not transmit any water.
-An aquitard is a layer of low permeability that can store ground water and also transmit
it slowly from one aquifer to another.
-An aquiclude is A formation which contains water but cannot transmit it rapidly enough
to furnish a significant supply to a well or spring.
The water table

■ Static level of water in wells penetrating zone of saturation

■ Often described as a subdued replica of the surface topography, which is commonly
higher under the hills than the valleys, and a contour map, of the water table in any
area may look much like the surface topography.
■ The water table is the surface of a water body which is constantly adjusting itself
toward an equilibrium condition. If there were no recharge, table would eventually
become horizontal.
Artesian Aquifers
■ Analogous to pipelines
■ Static pressure at a point within the aquifer is equivalent to the elevation of water
table in the recharge area less the loss in head through the aquifer to the point in
question

■ Flowing artesian well is a well piercing the confining stratum acts much like a
piezometer in a pipe and water will rise in the well to the level of local static
pressure( artesian head).
■ Piezometric surface defined by the water level in the group of artesian wells and is
the artesian equivalent of the water table.
■ An artesian aquifer is an underground layer which holds groundwater under
pressure. This causes the water level in the well to rise to a point where the
pressure is equal to the weight of water putting it under pressure. This type
of well is called an artesian well. Water may even reach the ground surface if
the natural pressure is high enough, in which case the well is called a flowing
artesian well.
Types of wells

■ Artesian well is one in which the water rises above the level at which it is
encountered in the aquifer because of pressure in the confined water of the aquifer.
■ Flowing well an artesian well where the pressure raise the water above the casing
head.
Hydraulics of Wells

■ If a well penetrates an extensive homogenous isotropic aquifer in which the water

table is initially horizontal,
■ Cone of depression which is a circular depression in the water table must develop
when the well is pumped since no flow could take place without a gradient toward
the well.
■ Drawdown is the drop in water level Z
■ Let the original thickness of aquifer penetrated by the well be Y and Y-Z = y. At any
distance x from the well the flow toward the well , the well in gallons per day is
 Calculation of Discharge in Confined Aquifer Using Theim’s Formula for Steady
Radial Flow:
■ Discharge through confined aquifer can be calculated from the formula

K = coefficient of permeability
m = thickness of aquifer
rw = radius of the well
T = transmissibility of aquifer = K.m

The above equation is called equilibrium or Thiem’s equation and is used to determine piezometric head at
any point at a radial distance r from the centre of the well. Carrying the logic further if the piezometric heads in
two observation wells say h1 and h2 at two points r1and r2 distance radially away respectively from the centre of
the pumped well are measured during the pumping test, coefficient of permeability ‘K can be easily calculated.
The formula can be written as follows (r2 > r1) The above method is popularly called Thiem’s method.
Calculation of Discharge in Unconfined Aquifer Using Theim’s Formula for
Steady Flow:

■ considering the steady state condition, the discharge at any distance r towards
the well is given by applying Darcy’s formula in conjunction with simplifying
assumptions made by Dupit
■ Q = K A I = 2πr K h dh/dr
■ Integrating the equation (1) between limits h = H2 at r = rw h = head at any
distance r
■
Then taking limit when h = H1 at r = R, (the radius of influence) equation (a) will
become

Sichardt’s formula may be used to calculate radius of influence R.

It is expressed below to recapatulate:
R = 3000 s√K
where R is radius of influence in metres
s is drawdown at well in metres
K is coeff. of permeability in m/sec.
 𝑑𝑦
𝑄 = 2 ∏𝑥 𝑦 𝐾𝑠
𝑑𝑥
Where:
■ Q= the discharge of the well
■ 2 ∏𝑥 𝑦= the area of the cylinder through which the flow occurs
■ Ks= the permeability coefficient
■ dy/dx = the slope of water table
Problem:
■ A tube well is 0.46 m in diameter. The unconfined aquifer is of 18 m depth. After
drawdown depth of water is 12 m in the well. Permeability of soil is 24.50
m/day. Radius of circle of influence is 275 metres. Calculate discharge of the
tube well.
■
References:

■ http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/water/groundwater/calculation-of-discharge-in-
confined-and-unconfined-aquifer/61128
■ https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-groundwater?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-
news_science_products
■ https://www.groundwater.org/get-informed/basics/whatis.html
■ https://www.slideshare.net/ahmedwassel/underground-water-58169065
■ https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artesian_aquifer