Water table fluctuation owing to time-varying recharge, pumping and leakage

Abstract

This paper presents an analytical solution of a 2-d linearized Boussinesq equation to predict water table variation in a horizontal aquifer induced by time-varying recharge and/or withdrawal from any number of recharge basins, pumping wells and leakage sites of different dimensions. The rate of time-varying recharge (or withdrawal) is approximated by series of line elements of different lengths and slopes depending on the nature of variation of recharge (or withdrawal) rate. Advantage of this approximation scheme is that any complex nature of recharge and/or withdrawal rates for any number of recharge basins, pumping wells and leakage sites and for any number of these operations can be approximated with more accuracy. Application of the solution in the prediction of water table variation in the presence of time varying recharging, pumping and leakage is demonstrated with the help of an example problem. The present analytical solution is validated by comparing its results with the corresponding numerical results obtained from MODFLOW for the same example problem.