Print this page Groundwater Engineering for Water Supplies - Aquifer Tests and Analyses
Conrad G. Leszkiewicz, PhD, PE, PG
Course Outline
The dominant application of groundwater engineering is the provision of water supplies for municipalities, agriculture, and industries. Groundwater is the earth’s most abundant available fresh water source, exceeding that in all of the fresh water surface bodies on earth. With increasing demands for water from growing world populations, agriculture, and industry, as well as growing intermittent, if not long-term, shortages of surface water due to droughts, groundwater is becoming an even more important source of fresh water for society.
This 12-hour course is the second part of a three-part series that will provide the essential tools necessary for effective groundwater engineering of water supplies. This course will provide knowledge about the types of aquifer tests and how to perform them, as well as how to analyze the resulting data. These tools are vital for the engineer to design a cost-effective water supply well and/or well field.
This course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to
enhance the understanding of the course materials.
Learning Objective
At the conclusion of this course, the student would have achieved an understanding of:
- What the cone of depression is and how groundwater flows into a well;
- The sources of groundwater that flows into wells;
- What an aquifer test is and how an aquifer test is conducted;
- The Theis Type Curve Method for an aquifer test and how data is analyzed;
- The Jacob Time-Drawdown test and how to analyze data;
- The Jacob Distance-Drawdown test and how to analyze data;
- Single-Well tests and how to analyze data;
- How to describe well interference effects for multiple withdrawal and recharge wells;
- What aquifer boundaries are and how they affect well drawdown and yield;
- How lateral boundaries affect aquifer test results and how to interpret;
- How leaky confining beds affect aquifer test result and how to interpret;
- Excel spreadsheet drawdown prediction using the Theis Method;
- Excel spreadsheet analysis of pumping test data for Jacob’s Distance-Drawdown method;
- Excel spreadsheet analysis of pumping test data for Single-Well test; and
- Excel spreadsheet analysis of pumping test data for a leaky aquifer.
The subject matter of this course will be of benefit to professionals involved in water resource development including civil-environmental engineers, geohydrologists, municipal planners, and others concerned with groundwater resources.
Benefit to Attendees
The course serves as both a succinct introduction to groundwater hydraulics and analyses and as a refresher to more experienced professionals.
Course
Introduction
In this course you will learn how to evaluate aquifer hydraulics and analyze groundwater flow to a well in different aquifer types, and quantify long-term groundwater yield.
Course Content
In this lesson, you are required to download and study the following documents: US Geological Survey (USGS) Water Supply Paper No. 2220, Basic Groundwater Hydrology, 2004 Revised; Ralph C. Heath, pages 30-51; the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Ground Water Manual, 2nd edition, 1995; Chapter VI, pages 155-166, Chapter VIII, pages197-220, and Chapter IX, pages 221-292; and the USGS Open File Report 02-197 Spreadsheets for the Analysis of Aquifer and Slug Test Data, Version 1.2; K. Halford and E. Kuniasky, pages 5-20 and 30-37. The quiz is based on the above publications.
Spreadsheets for the Analysis of Aquifer and Slug Test Data
Please click on the above underlined hypertext to view, download or print the document for your study. Because of the large file size, we recommend that you first save the file to your computer by right clicking the mouse and choosing "Save Target As ...", and then open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you still experience any difficulty in downloading or opening this file, you may need to close some applications or reboot your computer to free up some memory.
Course Summary
This course covers the essential technical knowledge for understanding how to quantify the amounts of available groundwater in varying subsurface aquifer types.
Quiz
Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.
DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.
