Using Environmental Tracers in Modeling Flow in a Complex Shallow Aquifer System
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 13, Issue 11
Abstract
Using environmental tracers in groundwater dating partly relies on the assumption that groundwater age distribution can be described analytically. To investigate the applicability of age dating in complex multiaquifer systems, a methodology for simulating well specific groundwater age distribution was developed. Using a groundwater model and particle tracking we modeled age distributions at screen locations. By enveloping modeled age distributions and estimated recharge concentrations, environmental tracer breakthroughs were simulated for specific screens. Simulated age distributions are of irregular shapes and sizes without being similar to the assumed age distributions used in the analytical approach. The shape of age distribution to some extent depends on sampling size and on whether the system is modeled in a transient or in a steady state, but shape and size were largely driven by the heterogeneity of the model and by topographical variations as well. Analytically derived groundwater ages are dependent on sampling time. This time dependence relates to the nonlinearity of recharge concentrations and the shape and size of age distribution that has no coherence with the simplified assumptions of traditional approaches. Accordingly, constraining flow models by “age observations” may lead to misrepresentations that are biased depending on sampling time. If environmental tracers are used directly in terms of concentrations instead of ages, spatial as well as temporal variations become useful in constraining models.
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Acknowledgments
This project was supported by EU-project “BASELINE”—Natural Baseline Quality of European Groundwater, and the IAEA Coordinated Research Program, “Isotope Response to Dynamic Changes in Groundwater Systems due to Long-term Exploitation.” Further funds were received from the Odense Water Company (Odense Vandselskab) and the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. The work was funded, in part, under a contract with the Ministry of Energy and Environment, 1996–2001, for establishment of a National Water Resources Model (DK-model) and by the Danish Research Agency (Forskningsstyrelsen).
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Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 13 • Issue 11 • November 2008
Pages: 1037 - 1048
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© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Feb 2, 2007
Accepted: Jun 4, 2008
Published online: Nov 1, 2008
Published in print: Nov 2008
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