Abstract

Adolf and Günther Thiem, father and son, left behind a methodological legacy that many current hydrogeologists are probably unaware of. It goes much beyond the Dupuit-Thiem analytical model for pump test analysis, which is connected to their name. Methods, which we use on a day-to-day basis today, such as isopotential maps, tracer tests and vertical wells were amongst the many contributions which the Thiems either developed or improved. Remarkably, this was not done in a university context but rather as a by-product of their practical work designing and building water supply schemes in countries all over Europe. Some of these water works are still active. Both Thiems were also great science communicators. Their contributions were read and applied in many countries, especially in the US, through a personal connection between Günther and O.E. Meinzer, the leading USGS hydrogeologist of the time.

Highlights

  • The name Thiem appears in many hydrogeological textbooks, most often in the context of the Dupuit-Thiem method, an analytical model for the evaluation of steady-state pumping tests

  • Methods, which we use on a day-to-day basis today, such as isopotential maps, tracer tests and vertical wells were amongst the many contributions which the Thiems either developed or improved

  • Smrekers feud with the Thiem School must have been quite bitter, as Smreker does not mention any hydraulic study of neither Adolf nor Günther Thiem in his otherwise excellent book (Smreker, 1914). This is quite unusual for a time when there were few published studies available, and Thiem had already been recognized as the founding father of hydrogeology in Germany. 485 Another hydrologist who got into trouble with Adolf Thiem was Gustav Oesten, a civil engineer and sub-director of the Berlin 486 water works, later the author of an influential textbook on water supply that went through several editions (Oesten, 1904)

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Summary

Introduction

The name Thiem appears in many hydrogeological textbooks, most often in the context of the Dupuit-Thiem method, an analytical model for the evaluation of steady-state pumping tests. Few hydrogeologists are aware that there were two engineers of this name, father and son, Adolf and Günther Thiem Both contributed much more to the current hydrogeological methods than just a somewhat outdated pumping test model. Their work laid the foundations for a diversity of applications and methods still being used today, e.g., tracer tests, well construction, and isopotential maps, and was widely acknowledged even on the international scale, especially in the US. They planned and supervised the construction of many groundwater supply schemes in several European countries, some of which are still active today, in modernized form.

Biography
Contributions to pumping tests
Contributions to well design The first pumping wells
Development of tracer test methods
Equipotential and hydrogeological maps 391 During his work in Augsburg with
Artificial groundwater recharge
Construction dewatering
Scientific feuds
Consulting Engineer
Editor, publisher and author
Honours
Günther Thiem and Oscar Edward Meinzer
Conclusions
Full Text
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