[1] Hydraulic tomography has been proposed as an alternative site characterization method, however, relatively few field scale studies have been attempted. In this paper, we characterize the highly heterogeneous glaciofluvial aquifer-aquitard system at the North Campus Research Site, located at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada using transient hydraulic tomography (THT). In particular, we performed 9 pumping tests in a network of wells to image the hydraulic conductivity (K) and specific storage (S s ) distributions (or tomograms) as well as their uncertainties in three-dimensions using the THT code of J. Zhu and T.-C. J. . We first performed stochastic inverse modeling of the 9 pumping tests individually to gain insight into the level of detail that can be imaged. Then, we sequentially included 4 of the pumping tests in a THT analysis. The resulting K and S s tomograms were then validated visually by comparing them to stratigraphy and permeameter K estimates. The K and S s tomograms were also rigorously assessed through the simulation of all 9 pumping tests and comparing the simulated and observed drawdowns. We find that performing the inversion with multiple pumping tests (i.e., hydraulic tomography) yields improved results when compared to the analysis of individual pumping tests.Citation: Berg, S. J., and W. A. Illman (2011), Three-dimensional transient hydraulic tomography in a highly heterogeneous glaciofluvial aquifer-aquitard system, Water Resour.

Hydraulic conductivity (K) and specific storage (S(s)) are required parameters when designing transient groundwater flow models. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability of commonly used hydrogeologic characterization approaches to accurately delineate the distribution of hydraulic properties in a highly heterogeneous glaciofluvial deposit. The metric used to compare the various approaches was the prediction of drawdown responses from three separate pumping tests. The study was conducted at a field site, where a 15 m × 15 m area was instrumented with four 18-m deep Continuous Multichannel Tubing (CMT) wells. Each CMT well contained seven 17 cm × 1.9 cm monitoring ports equally spaced every 2 m down each CMT system. An 18-m deep pumping well with eight separate 1-m long screens spaced every 2 m was also placed in the center of the square pattern. In each of these boreholes, cores were collected and characterized using the Unified Soil Classification System, grain size analysis, and permeameter tests. To date, 471 K estimates have been obtained through permeameter analyses and 270 K estimates from empirical relationships. Geostatistical analysis of the small-scale K data yielded strongly heterogeneous K fields in three-dimensions. Additional K estimates were obtained through slug tests in 28 ports of the four CMT wells. Several pumping tests were conducted using the multiscreen and CMT wells to obtain larger scale estimates of both K and S(s). The various K and S(s) estimates were then quantitatively evaluated by simulating transient drawdown data from three pumping tests using a 3D forward numerical model constructed using HydroGeoSphere (Therrien et al. 2005). Results showed that, while drawdown predictions generally improved as more complexity was introduced into the model, the ability to make accurate drawdown predictions at all CMT ports was inconsistent.

[1] The accurate characterization of fractured geologic medium, imaging of fracture patterns and their connectivity have been a challenge for decades. Recently, hydraulic tomography has been proposed as a new method for imaging the hydraulic conductivity (K) and specific storage (S s ) distributions of fractured geologic media. While encouraging results have been obtained in the field, the method has not been rigorously assessed in a controlled laboratory setting. In this study, we assess the performance of transient hydraulic tomography (THT) in a fractured dolomitic rock block. The block is characterized through flow-through tests and multiple pumping tests. The pumping test data were then analyzed with the THT code of Zhu and Yeh (2005) to image the fracture patterns and their connectivity through the delineation of K and S s distributions (or tomograms). Results show that the THT analysis of pumping tests yields high-K and low-S s zones that capture the fracture pattern and their connectivity quite well and those patterns become more vivid as additional pumping test data are added to the inverse model. The performance of the estimated K and S s tomograms are then assessed by: (1) comparing the tomograms obtained from synthetic to real data; (2) comparing the tomograms from two different pumping configurations; (3) comparing the estimated geometric mean of the hydraulic conductivity (K G ) from the K tomogram to the effective hydraulic conductivity (K eff ) estimated from the flow-through tests; and (4) predicting five independent pumping tests not used in the construction of the K and S s tomograms. The performance assessment of the K and S s tomograms reveals that THT is able to image high-K and low-S s zones that correspond to fracture locations in the fractured rock block and that the tomograms can be used to predict drawdowns from pumping tests not used in the construction of the tomograms with reasonable fidelity.

[1] Groundwater modeling has become a vital component to water supply and contaminant transport investigations. These models require representative hydraulic conductivity (K) and specific storage (S s ) estimates, or a set of estimates representing subsurface heterogeneity. Currently, there are a number of approaches for characterizing and modeling K and S s heterogeneity in varying degrees of detail, but there is a lack of consensus for an approach that results in the most robust groundwater models with the best predictive ability. The main goal of this study is to compare different heterogeneity modeling approaches (e.g., effective parameters, geostatistics, geological models, and hydraulic tomography) when input into a forward groundwater model and used to predict 16 independent cross-hole pumping tests. We first characterize a sandbox aquifer through single-and cross-hole pumping tests, and then use these data to construct forward groundwater models of various complexities (both homogeneous and heterogeneous distributions). Two effective parameter models are constructed: (1) by taking the geometric mean of single-hole test K and S s estimates and (2) calibrating effective K and S s estimates by simultaneously matching the response at all ports during a cross-hole test. Heterogeneous models consist of spatially variable K and S s fields obtained via (1) kriging single-hole data; (2) calibrating a geological model; and (3) conducting transient hydraulic tomography . The performance of these parameter fields are then tested through the simulation of 16 independent cross-hole pumping tests. Our results convincingly show that transient hydraulic tomography produces the smallest discrepancy between observed and simulated drawdowns.