Groundwater energy balanceThe groundwater energy balance is the energy balance of a groundwater body in terms of incoming hydraulic energy associated with groundwater inflow into the body, energy associated with the outflow, energy conversion into heat due to friction of flow, and the resulting change of energy status and groundwater level. When multiplying the horizontal velocity of groundwater (dimension, for example, per cross-sectional area) with the groundwater potential (dimension energy per volume of water, or ) one obtains an energy flow (flux) in for the given flow and cross-sectional area.
Drawdown (hydrology)In hydrology, there are two similar but distinct definitions in use for the word drawdown: In subsurface hydrogeology, drawdown is the reduction in hydraulic head observed at a well in an aquifer, typically due to pumping a well as part of an aquifer test or well test. In surface water hydrology and civil engineering, drawdown refers to the lowering of the surface elevation of a body of water, the water table, the piezometric surface, or the water surface of a well, as a result of the withdrawal of water.
Agricultural hydrologyAgricultural hydrology is the study of water balance components intervening in agricultural water management, especially in irrigation and drainage. The water balance components can be grouped into components corresponding to zones in a vertical cross-section in the soil forming reservoirs with inflow, outflow and storage of water: the surface reservoir (S) the root zone or unsaturated (vadose zone) (R) with mainly vertical flows the aquifer (Q) with mainly horizontal flows a transition zone (T) in which vertical and horizontal flows are converted The general water balance reads: inflow = outflow + change of storage and it is applicable to each of the reservoirs or a combination thereof.
Drainage equationA drainage equation is an equation describing the relation between depth and spacing of parallel subsurface drains, depth of the watertable, depth and hydraulic conductivity of the soils. It is used in drainage design. A well known steady-state drainage equation is the Hooghoudt drain spacing equation. Its original publication is in Dutch. The equation was introduced in the USA by van Schilfgaarde. Hooghoudt's equation can be written as:.
Water balanceThe law of water balance states that the inflows to any water system or area is equal to its outflows plus change in storage during a time interval. In hydrology, a water balance equation can be used to describe the flow of water in and out of a system. A system can be one of several hydrological or water domains, such as a column of soil, a drainage basin, an irrigation area or a city. The water balance is also referred to as a water budget. Developing water budgets is a fundamental activity in the science of hydrology.
Structural geologyStructural geology is the study of the three-dimensional distribution of rock units with respect to their deformational histories. The primary goal of structural geology is to use measurements of present-day rock geometries to uncover information about the history of deformation (strain) in the rocks, and ultimately, to understand the stress field that resulted in the observed strain and geometries.
Well testIn hydrology, a well test is conducted to evaluate the amount of water that can be pumped from a particular water well. More specifically, a well test will allow prediction of the maximum rate at which water can be pumped from a well, and the distance that the water level in the well will fall for a given pumping rate and duration of pumping. Well testing differs from aquifer testing in that the behaviour of the well is primarily of concern in the former, while the characteristics of the aquifer (the geological formation or unit that supplies water to the well) are quantified in the latter.
SahysModSahysMod is a computer program for the prediction of the salinity of soil moisture, groundwater and drainage water, the depth of the watertable, and the drain discharge in irrigated agricultural lands, using different hydrogeologic and aquifer conditions, varying water management options, including the use of ground water for irrigation, and several crop rotation schedules, whereby the spatial variations are accounted for through a network of polygons.
MODFLOWMODFLOW is the U.S. Geological Survey modular finite-difference flow model, which is a computer code that solves the groundwater flow equation. The program is used by hydrogeologists to simulate the flow of groundwater through aquifers. The source code is free public domain software, written primarily in Fortran, and can compile and run on Microsoft Windows or Unix-like operating systems. Since its original development in the early 1980s, the USGS has made six major releases, and is now considered to be the de facto standard code for aquifer simulation.
Artesian wellAn artesian well is a well that brings groundwater to the surface without pumping because it is under pressure within a body of rock and/or sediment known as an aquifer. When trapped water in an aquifer is surrounded by layers of impermeable rock or clay, which apply positive pressure to the water, it is known as an artesian aquifer. If a well were to be sunk into an artesian aquifer, water in the well-pipe would rise to a height corresponding to the point where hydrostatic equilibrium is reached.
