Estimating aquifer properties using groundwater hydrograph modelling

V. Shapoori, T. J. Peterson, A. W. Western, J. F. Costelloe

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Estimation of aquifer hydraulic properties is essential for predicting the response of an aquifer to extractions and hence estimating the availability of the groundwater resources. Aquifer tests are commonly used for the estimation of aquifer properties; however, they can be expensive and often only characterize the short-term response of the aquifer. This paper presents a time series modelling approach to estimating aquifer hydraulic properties. It is applied to 42 bores monitoring an unconfined aquifer within an irrigation region of south-eastern Australia, and the resulting probabilistic estimate of hydraulic properties are evaluated against pumping test estimates. It is demonstrated that the time series modelling can provide a reliable estimate of the hydraulic properties that are typical of a very long-term pumping test. Furthermore, the application of the time series modelling to 42 bores provided novel insights into the aquifer heterogeneity. We encourage others to further test the approach and the source code is available from: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/48546-peterson-tim-j-groundwater-statistics-toolbox Copyright

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5424-5437
Number of pages14
JournalHydrological Processes
Volume29
Issue number26
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30 Dec 2015
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Aquifer properties
  • Groundwater
  • Time series modelling

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