Hydraulic Tomography and High-Resolution Slug Testing to Determine Hydraulic Conductivity Distributions
Abstract
Considerable research has shown that the major control on the transport and fate of a pollutant as it moves through an aquifer is the spatial distribution of hydraulic conductivity. Although chemical and microbial processes play important roles, their influence cannot be understood without a detailed knowledge of the subsurface variations in hydraulic conductivity at a site. Many theories have been developed to quantify, in a generic sense, the influence of these variations using stochastic processes or fractal representations. It is increasingly apparent, however, that site-specific features of the hydraulic conductivity distribution (such as high conductivity zones) need to be quantified to reliably predict contaminant movement. Conventional hydraulic field techniques only provide information of a highly averaged nature or information restricted to the immediate vicinity of the test well. Therefore, development of new innovative methods to delineate the detailed hydraulic conductivity distribution at a given site should be a high priority. The research proposed here is directed at addressing this problem by developing techniques to map 3-D hydraulic conductivity distributions.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 2011
- Accession Number
- ADA547095
Entities
People
- Brett R. Engard
- Brian J. Wachter
- Carl D. Mcelwee
- J. F. Devlin
- John H. Healey
- Shane A. Lyle
Organizations
- University of Kansas