Home  About us  Contact
 

Head Data (head + data)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Engineering100%

Kinds of Head Data

  • hydraulic head data
    		•

    Selected Abstracts

    The effect of terrace geology on ground-water movement and on the interaction of ground water and surface water on a mountainside near Mirror Lake, New Hampshire, USA,

    HYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES, Issue 1 2008
    Thomas C. Winter
    Abstract The west watershed of Mirror Lake in the White Mountains of New Hampshire contains several terraces that are at different altitudes and have different geologic compositions. The lowest terrace (FSE) has 5 m of sand overlying 9 m of till. The two next successively higher terraces (FS2 and FS1) consist entirely of sand and have maximum thicknesses of about 7 m. A fourth, and highest, terrace (FS3) lies in the north-west watershed directly adjacent to the west watershed. This highest terrace has 2 m of sand overlying 8 m of till. All terraces overlie fractured crystalline bedrock. Numerical models of hypothetical settings simulating ground-water flow in a mountainside indicated that the presence of a terrace can cause local ground-water flow cells to develop, and that the flow patterns differ based on the geologic composition of the terrace. For example, more ground water moves from the bedrock to the glacial deposits beneath terraces consisting completely of sand than beneath terraces that have sand underlain by till. Field data from Mirror Lake watersheds corroborate the numerical experiments. The geology of the terraces also affects how the stream draining the west watershed interacts with ground water. The stream turns part way down the mountainside and passes between the two sand terraces, essentially transecting the movement of ground water down the valley side. Transects of water-table wells were installed across the stream's riparian zone above, between, and below the sand terraces. Head data from these wells indicated that the stream gains ground water on both sides above and below the sand terraces. However, where it flows between the sand terraces the stream gains ground water on its uphill side and loses water on its downhill side. Biogeochemical processes in the riparian zone of the flow-through reach have resulted in anoxic ground water beneath the lower sand terrace. Results of this study indicate that it is useful to understand patterns of ground-water flow in order to fully understand the flow and chemical characteristics of both ground water and surface water in mountainous terrain. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

    The Value of Subsidence Data in Ground Water Model Calibration

    GROUND WATER, Issue 4 2008
    Tingting Yan
    The accurate estimation of aquifer parameters such as transmissivity and specific storage is often an important objective during a ground water modeling investigation or aquifer resource evaluation. Parameter estimation is often accomplished with changes in hydraulic head data as the key and most abundant type of observation. The availability and accessibility of global positioning system and interferometric synthetic aperture radar data in heavily pumped alluvial basins can provide important subsidence observations that can greatly aid parameter estimation. The aim of this investigation is to evaluate the value of spatial and temporal subsidence data for automatically estimating parameters with and without observation error using UCODE-2005 and MODFLOW-2000. A synthetic conceptual model (24 separate cases) containing seven transmissivity zones and three zones each for elastic and inelastic skeletal specific storage was used to simulate subsidence and drawdown in an aquifer with variably thick interbeds with delayed drainage. Five pumping wells of variable rates were used to stress the system for up to 15 years. Calibration results indicate that (1) the inverse of the square of the observation values is a reasonable way to weight the observations, (2) spatially abundant subsidence data typically produce superior parameter estimates under constant pumping even with observation error, (3) only a small number of subsidence observations are required to achieve accurate parameter estimates, and (4) for seasonal pumping, accurate parameter estimates for elastic skeletal specific storage values are largely dependent on the quantity of temporal observational data and less on the quantity of available spatial data. [source]

    Identifying the Potential Loss of Monitoring Wells Using an Uncertainty Analysis

    GROUND WATER, Issue 6 2005
    Vicky L. Freedman
    From the mid-1940s through the 1980s, large volumes of waste water were discharged at the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington State, causing a large-scale rise (>20 m) in the water table. When waste water discharges ceased in 1988, ground water mounds began to dissipate. This caused a large number of wells to go dry and has made it difficult to monitor contaminant plume migration. To identify monitoring wells that will need replacement, a methodology has been developed using a first-order uncertainty analysis with UCODE, a nonlinear parameter estimation code. Using a three-dimensional, finite-element ground water flow code, key parameters were identified by calibrating to historical hydraulic head data. Results from the calibration period were then used to check model predictions by comparing monitoring wells' wet/dry status with field data. This status was analyzed using a methodology that incorporated the 0.3 cumulative probability derived from the confidence and prediction intervals. For comparison, a nonphysically based trend model was also used as a predictor of wells' wet/dry status. Although the numerical model outperformed the trend model, for both models, the central value of the intervals was a better predictor of a wet well status. The prediction interval, however, was more successful at identifying dry wells. Predictions made through the year 2048 indicated that 46% of the wells in the monitoring well network are likely to go dry in areas near the river and where the ground water mound is dissipating. [source]

    A Probabilistic Method for Estimating Monitoring Point Density for Containment System Leak Detection

    GROUND WATER, Issue 4 2000
    Randall R. Ross
    The use of physical and hydraulic containment systems for the isolation of contaminated ground water and aquifer materials associated with hazardous waste sites has increased during the last decade. The existing methodologies for monitoring and evaluating leakage from hazardous waste containment systems rely primarily on limited hydraulic head data. The number of hydraulic head monitoring points available at most sites employing physical containment systems may be insufficient to identify significant leaks from the systems. A probabilistic approach for evaluating the performance of containment systems, based on estimations of apparent leakage rates, is used to introduce a methodology for determining the minimum number of monitoring points necessary to identify the hydraulic signature of leakage from a containment system. The probabilistic method is based on the principles of geometric probability. The method is demonstrated using three-dimensional ground water flow modeling results of leakage through a vertical barrier. The results indicate that the monitoring point spacing used at many hazardous waste sites likely is inadequate to detect the hydraulic signatures of all but the largest leaks. [source]

    Time series forecasting by combining the radial basis function network and the self-organizing map

    HYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES, Issue 10 2005
    Gwo-Fong Lin
    Abstract Based on a combination of a radial basis function network (RBFN) and a self-organizing map (SOM), a time-series forecasting model is proposed. Traditionally, the positioning of the radial basis centres is a crucial problem for the RBFN. In the proposed model, an SOM is used to construct the two-dimensional feature map from which the number of clusters (i.e. the number of hidden units in the RBFN) can be figured out directly by eye, and then the radial basis centres can be determined easily. The proposed model is examined using simulated time series data. The results demonstrate that the proposed RBFN is more competent in modelling and forecasting time series than an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model. Finally, the proposed model is applied to actual groundwater head data. It is found that the proposed model can forecast more precisely than the ARIMA model. For time series forecasting, the proposed model is recommended as an alternative to the existing method, because it has a simple structure and can produce reasonable forecasts. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

    Hydrological influences on hyporheic water quality: implications for salmon egg survival

    HYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES, Issue 9 2004
    I. A. Malcolm
    Abstract The spatial and temporal variability of groundwater,surface-water (GW,SW) interactions was investigated in an intensively utilized salmon spawning riffle. Hydrochemical tracers, were used along with high-resolution hydraulic head and temperature data to assess hyporheic dynamics. Surface and subsurface hydrochemistry were monitored at three locations where salmon spawning had been observed in previous years. Temperature and hydraulic head were monitored in three nests of three piezometers located to characterize the head, the run and the tail-out of the riffle feature. Hydrochemical gradients between surface and subsurface water indicated increasing GW influence with depth into the hyporheic zone. Surface water was characterized by high dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations, low alkalinity and conductivity. Hyporheic water was generally characterized by high levels of alkalinity and conductivity indicative of longer residence times, and low DO, indicative of reducing conditions. Hydrochemical and temperature gradients varied spatially over the riffle in response to changes in local GW,SW interactions at the depths investigated. Groundwater inputs dominated the head and tail of the riffle. The influence of SW increased in the area of accelerating flow and decreasing water depth through the run of the riffle. Temporal GW,SW interactions also varied in response to changing hydrological conditions. Gross changes in hyporheic hydrochemistry were observed at the weekly scale in response to changing flow conditions and surface water inputs to the hyporheic zone. During low flows, caused by freezing or dry weather, hyporheic hydrochemistry was dominated by GW inputs. During higher flows hyporheic hydrochemistry indicated that SW contributions increased. In addition, high-resolution hydraulic head data indicated that rapid changes in GW,SW interactions occurred during hydrological events. The spatial, and possibly the temporal, variability of GW,SW interactions had a marked effect on the survival of salmon ova. It is concluded that hyporheic dynamics and their effect on stream ecology should be given increased consideration by fisheries and water resource managers. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]