Modelling of flow pattern in a shallow aquifer affected by reservoirs - II. Method of estimating flow parameters using environmental tracers

A compartmental model is developed to estimate flow parameters of a shallow aquifer affected by water loads in surface reservoirs and to evaluate its nonsteady flow distribution. The method incorporates temporal piezometric head measurements and sampling of water for dissolved chemicals and isotopes analyses. Each compartment is governed by a set of equations describing the conservation of linear momentum and mass balance expressions for water, isotopes, and dissolved chemicals. The number of compartmental balance expressions always must be greater than that of the unknown flow parameters associated with each compartment. An optimization method is described to yield spatial distribution of aquifer storativity, transmissivity, porosity, leakage, and compliance coefficients and fluxes leaking into an aquifer's lower boundary. Future predictions of an aquifer's piezometric head distribution in a compartmental system is formulated on the basis of the estimated flow parameters and the leakage components. Compartmental modelling which incorporates concentrations of environmental tracers, may yield efficiency in computing resources and accuracy enhancement for predicting an aquifer's flow regime.