Three‐dimensional transient hydraulic tomography in a highly heterogeneous glaciofluvial aquifer‐aquitard system

Abstract

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 (Ss) distributions (or tomograms) as well as their uncertainties in three‐dimensions using the THT code of J. Zhu and T.‐C. J. Yeh (2005). 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 Ss tomograms were then validated visually by comparing them to stratigraphy and permeameter K estimates. The K and Ss 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.