Hydraulic conductivity explored by factor analysis of borehole geophysical data

Abstract

A multivariate statistical method is presented for providing hydrogeological information on groundwater formations. Factor analysis is applied to borehole logs in Hungary and the USA to estimate the vertical distribution of hydraulic conductivity of rocks intersected by the borehole. Earlier studies showed a strong correlation between a statistical variable extracted by factor analysis and shale volume in primary porosity rocks. Hydraulic conductivity as a related quantity can be derived directly by factor analysis. In the first step, electric and nuclear logs are transformed into factor logs, which are then correlated to hydraulic properties of aquifers. It is shown that a factor explaining the major part of variance of the measured variables is inversely proportional to hydraulic conductivity. By revealing the regression relation between the above quantities, an estimate for hydraulic conductivity can be given along the entire length of the borehole. Synthetic modeling experiments and field cases demonstrate the feasibility of the method, which can be applied both in primary and secondary porosity aquifers. The results of factor analysis show consistence with those of the Kozeny-Carman method and hydraulic aquifer tests. The application of the statistical analysis of well logs together with independent ground geophysical and hydrogeological methods serves a more efficient exploration of groundwater resources.