Innovative Hydrogeophysical Approaches as Aids to Assess Hungarian Groundwater Bodies

Péter Szűcs,Sándor Szalai,Mohammad Zubair,Norbert P Szabó

doi:10.3390/app11052099

Abstract

The Hungarian water management plan has lately identified 185 groundwater bodies based on the concepts given by the European Water Framework Directive. Achieving and maintaining the good quantitative and chemical status of these groundwater bodies is of primary importance. It is demonstrated how innovative hydrogeophysical methods can be applied successfully to assess the Hungarian or other international groundwater bodies. By applying geoelectric methods, horizontal layering or large uniform rock units can be well characterized by Wenner–Schlumberger array, also enabling accurate depth determination of the shallow groundwater table. Horizontal variations in the rock type or its state can be well described by dipole–dipole array or, even better, by the newly developed quasi-null arrays. Their joint application may be very straightforward to investigate different aquifer types by giving high-resolution resistivity images as input for hydrogeological modeling. In the identification of porous formations, multivariate statistical interpretation of wireline logs using cluster analysis allows reliable lithological separation of potential aquifers. Their clay content is estimated by robust factor analysis, while their hydraulic properties are directly derived from the resistivity log. For a more effective interpretation, a combination of surface and borehole geophysical methods can be recommended for meeting challenges in hydrogeology and groundwater management.

Highlights

The protection and sustainable use of water resources are core provisions of the European Union legislation [1]
In 2016, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences launched the National Water Research Program [4] to provide the scientific evidence base for implementing the strategic targets of the National Water Strategy. This baseline document provides a concise overview of the situation, based predominantly on the extensive documentation developed as part of the revision process of the Hungarian River Basin Management Plan by the National Water Directorate under the Ministry of Interior
Well-logging methods, including lithology, porosity and resistivity logs in contrary give information only to selected points of an area, but they can describe very detailed the vertical variations of, e.g., lithology and shaliness, porosity and water-saturation which are basic in situ parameters in hydrogeological studies

Summary

Introduction

The protection and sustainable use of water resources are core provisions of the European Union legislation [1]. In 2016, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences launched the National Water Research Program [4] to provide the scientific evidence base for implementing the strategic targets of the National Water Strategy This baseline document provides a concise overview of the situation, based predominantly on the extensive documentation developed as part of the revision process of the Hungarian River Basin Management Plan by the National Water Directorate under the Ministry of Interior. The main goal is to achieve good quantitative and chemical status in the case of all groundwater bodies This main objective seems to be quite simple, the whole work process needs much work from different experts.

Objectives

Methods

Results