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The results reported in this work are based in part on measurements of sap flow in a few select trees on a representative riparian forest plot coupled with a forest-wide randomized sampling of tree sapwood area in a watershed located along the Pacific coast in Santa Cruz County, California. These measurements were upscaled to estimate evapotranspiration (ET) across the forest and to quantify groundwater usage by dominant phreatophyte vegetation. Canopy cover in the study area is dominated by red alder (Alnus rubra) and arroyo willow (Salix lasiolepis), deciduous phreatophyte trees from which a small sample was selected for instrumentation with sap flow sensors on a single forest plot. These localized sap flow measurements were then upscaled to the entire riparian forest to estimate forest ET using data from a survey of sapwood area on six plots scattered randomly across the entire forest. The estimated canopy-scale ET was compared to reference ET and NDVI based estimates. The results show positive correlation between sap flow based estimates and those of the other two methods, though over the winter months, sap flow-based ET values were found to significantly underestimate ET as predicted by the other two methods. The results illustrate the importance of ground-based measurements of sap flow for calibrating satellite based methods and for providing site-specific estimates and to better characterize the ET forcing in groundwater flow models.

To close the water use budget in irrigated agricultural fields in flood plains with substantial riparian corridors, it is necessary to understand groundwater usage by dominant phreatophyte vegetati...

We report the results of field and laboratory investigations of stream-aquifer interactions in a watershed along the California coast to assess the impact of groundwater pumping for irrigation on stream flows. The methods used include subsurface sediment sampling using direct-push drilling, laboratory permeability and particle size analyses of sediment, piezometer installation and instrumentation, stream discharge and stage monitoring, pumping tests for aquifer characterization, resistivity surveys, and long-term passive monitoring of stream stage and groundwater levels. Spectral analysis of long-term water level data was used to assess correlation between stream and groundwater level time series data. The investigations revealed the presence of a thin low permeability silt-clay aquitard unit between the main aquifer and the stream. This suggested a three layer conceptual model of the subsurface comprising unconfined and confined aquifers separated by an aquitard layer. This was broadly confirmed by resistivity surveys and pumping tests, the latter of which indicated the occurrence of leakage across the aquitard. The aquitard was determined to be 2–3 orders of magnitude less permeable than the aquifer, which is indicative of weak stream-aquifer connectivity and was confirmed by spectral analysis of stream-aquifer water level time series. The results illustrate the importance of site-specific investigations and suggest that even in systems where the stream is not in direct hydraulic contact with the producing aquifer, long-term stream depletion can occur due to leakage across low permeability units. This has implications for management of stream flows, groundwater abstraction, and water resources management during prolonged periods of drought.

Summary An alternative linearization of the nonlinear kinematic condition at the water table used in unconfined aquifer flow theory is proposed. It simulates the downward propagation of the water table, during water extraction via a pumping well, as a diffuse process controlled by a dimensionless linearization parameter, β D . The limiting value of β D = 0 corresponds to the solution of Neuman (1972) whereas that of β D → ∞ corresponds to the early-time Theis solution. Using the solution obtained with this linearization, data collected during a pumping test conducted at the Boise Hydrogeophysical Research Site in Idaho, US, were analyzed. The estimates of hydraulic conductivity and specific storage obtained in this study compare well with those obtained with the other models. The most significant improvement is in the estimated value of specific yield, with the proposed model yielding values that are close to those expected from known porosity values ( n ∼ 0.25) at the site. The results show that meaningful estimates of specific yield can be obtained by treating the water table as a diffuse moving material boundary, without recourse to more complex models for water table decline or inclusion of unsaturated zone flow.

Summary We investigate the response of the saturated zone (unconfined aquifer) to evapotranspiration (ET) flux at ground surface. We neglect fluid flow and storage in the unsaturated zone and treat ET as a sinusoidal forcing function at the watertable. The linearized kinematic condition is imposed at the watertable. Analytical solutions are developed for the case of flow in a domain of (a) semi-infinite extent to simulate response in a domain bounded by a river and (b) infinite lateral extent to simulate the response in a domain with no river boundaries. These solutions are fitted to observed groundwater head fluctuations recorded in observation wells at the Boise Hydrogeophysical Research Site in Idaho and the Larned Research Site in Kansas. Estimates of the amplitude of the ET flux, aquifer hydraulic conductivity, specific storage and specific yield are obtained and these compare well to published results from pumping tests conducted at the site. The field exercise is used to explore the potential for using groundwater head fluctuations to estimate ET and hydraulic parameters of unconfined aquifers.

Summary A semi-analytical solution is presented for the problem of flow in a system consisting of unconfined and confined aquifers, separated by an aquitard. The unconfined aquifer is pumped continuously at a constant rate from a well of infinitesimal radius that partially penetrates its saturated thickness. The solution is termed semi-analytical because the exact solution obtained in double Laplace‐Hankel transform space is inverted numerically. The solution presented here is more general than similar solutions obtained for confined aquifer flow as we do not adopt the assumption of unidirectional flow in the confined aquifer (typically assumed to be horizontal) and the aquitard (typically assumed to be vertical). Model predicted results show significant departure from the solution that does not take into account the effect of leakage even for cases where aquitard hydraulic conductivities are two orders of magnitude smaller than those of the aquifers. The results show low sensitivity to changes in radial hydraulic conductivities for aquitards that are two or more orders of magnitude smaller than those of the aquifers, in conformity to findings of earlier workers that radial flow in aquitards may be neglected under such conditions. Hence, for cases were aquitard hydraulic conductivities are two or more orders of magnitude smaller than aquifer conductivities, the simpler models that restrict flow to the radial direction in aquifers and to the vertical direction in aquitards may be sufficient. However, the model developed here can be used to model flow in aquifer‐aquitard systems where radial flow is significant in aquitards. a 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

This study presents a semi-analytical solution for the problem of leakage in an unconfined aquifer bounded below by an aquitard of finite or semi-infinite extent. The homogeneous anisotropic unconfined aquifer of infinite radial extent is pumped continuously at a constant rate from a well of infinitesimal radius. The aquitard is also homogeneous, anisotropic and of infinite radial extent. Flow in both the aquifer and the aquitard is allowed to occur both vertically and horizontally. Exact solutions to the governing equations given in this work are developed in the double Laplace-Hankel transform space for drawdown response in the unconfined aquifer and the underlying aquitard. The inverse transforms of the solutions are obtained numerically. The theoretical results show that leakage can cause significant departure, at both early and late times, from the solution with no leakage. The solution presented here can be used in least-squares routines for estimation of hydraulic parameters for two-layered unconfined aquifer-aquitard systems.

We present transient streaming potential data collected during falling-head permeameter tests performed on samples of two sands with different physical and chemical properties. The objective of the work is to estimate hydraulic conductivity (K) and the electrokinetic coupling coefficient (Cl ) of the sand samples. A semi-empirical model based on the falling-head permeameter flow model and electrokinetic coupling is used to analyze the streaming potential data and to estimate K and Cl . The values of K estimated from head data are used to validate the streaming potential method. Estimates of K from streaming potential data closely match those obtained from the associated head data, with less than 10% deviation. The electrokinetic coupling coefficient was estimated from streaming potential vs. (1) time and (2) head data for both sands. The results indicate that, within limits of experimental error, the values of Cl estimated by the two methods are essentially the same. The results of this work demonstrate that a temporal record of the streaming potential response in falling-head permeameter tests can be used to estimate both K and Cl . They further indicate the potential for using transient streaming potential data as a proxy for hydraulic head in hydrogeology applications.

We develop a closed-form three-parameter model for unsaturated hydraulic conductivity associated with the Kosugi three-parameter lognormal moisture retention model. The model derivation uses a slight modification to Mualem's theory, which is nearly exact for non-clay soils. Kosugi's three-parameter lognormal moisture retention model uses physically meaningful parameters, but a corresponding closed-form relative hydraulic conductivity model has never been developed. The model is further extended to a four -parameter model by truncating the underlying pore size distribution at physically permissible minimum and maximum pore radii. The proposed closed-form models are fitted to well-known experimental data, to illustrate their utility. They have the same physical basis as Kosugi's two-parameter model, but are more general., 1 table, 5 figures