Seepage laws in aquifer near a partially penetrating river with an intensive extraction of ground water

Abstract

The intensive extraction of ground water from aquifers near a river is an efficient way to exploit ground water resources. A lot of problems, however, have arisen because the mechanism of ground water flow in this way has not been clear. A sand-box model and a numerical model are respectively used to simulate the extraction of ground water near a partially penetrating river physically and theoretically. The results show that the ground water will lose saturated hydraulic connection with the river water as the pumping intensity increases. The broken point of hydraulic connection is located in the interior of aquifers rather than on the riverbed. After hydraulic disconnection occurs, two saturated zones, a suspended saturated zone linked with river and an unconfined aquifer, are formed.