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Exploration and Sustainable Management of Groundwater Resources in Geologically Complex Terrain

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A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Earth Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2022) | Viewed by 27616

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Special Issue Editors

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Shih-Meng Hsu

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Guest Editor

Department of Harbor and River Engineering, National Taiwan Ocean University, No.2, Beining Rd., Jhongjheng District, Keelung City 202, Taiwan
Interests: groundwater exploration in hard rock aquifers; applied hydrogeology; gohazard investigation and assessment; statistical analysis of hydrogeological data; disaster prevention education

Prof. Dr. Cheng-Haw Lee

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Guest Editor

Department of Resources Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1, University Rd., Tainan 70101, Taiwan
Interests: groundwater flow; fracture hydrogeology; groundwater resources; hydraulic tomography; subsurface hydrology; contaminant transport modeling

Prof. Dr. Liang-Cheng Chang

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Guest Editor

Department of Civil Engineering, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan
Interests: groundwater; conjunctive use of surface and subsurface water; application of intelligent computation on water resource system
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Groundwater is a precious and limited resource. Due to overexploitation and pollution, the available groundwater resources are declining globally. In addition, climate change poses unavoidable uncertainties to the supply and management of groundwater resources. Such influences drastically disrupt sustainable groundwater development. For sustainable use of groundwater resources, we must explore new groundwater resources from unexploited sites (e.g., groundwater abstraction from fractured bedrock aquifers) and promote advanced groundwater management. This will require more precise information on groundwater quantity and quality. Two primary obstacles for obtaining this goal are the characterization of aquifer systems and the identification of emerging groundwater resources. Particularly, if potential or contaminated groundwater occurs in complex geologic environments, these investigations become challenging. Advanced techniques (for example, single well or cross-borehole hydraulic tests, geophysical approaches, hydrogeophysical techniques, geochemistry and isotopes, remote sensing and GIS, numerical models, integrated interdisciplinary methods, etc.) and adaptive management strategies should be developed and proposed for sustainable use of groundwater resources.

This Special Issue welcomes original research papers and reviews focusing on recent advances and novelties in the field, as well as modeling approaches in groundwater investigation and management. Multidisciplinary investigations are strongly encouraged. Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

Groundwater exploration in geologically complex terrain;
Emerging technologies for groundwater investigation, monitoring, and numerical modeling;
Climate change impact on groundwater resources;
Innovative methods for subsurface characterization and modeling;
Advanced approaches for improved understanding of subsurface processes;
Sustainability and adaptive management of groundwater resources.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Shih-Meng Hsu
Prof. Dr. Cheng-Haw Lee
Prof. Dr. Liang-Cheng Chang
Guest Editors

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Keywords

groundwater exploration
sustainable groundwater management
climate change impacts on groundwater resources
hydrogeological investigation techniques
Groundwater modeling

Published Papers (11 papers)

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Editorial

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4 pages, 169 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Exploration and Sustainable Management of Groundwater Resources in Geologically Complex Terrain

by Shih-Meng Hsu, Cheng-Haw Lee and Liang-Cheng Chang

Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(9), 5392; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app13095392 - 26 Apr 2023

Viewed by 749

Abstract

Groundwater is a precious and limited resource [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploration and Sustainable Management of Groundwater Resources in Geologically Complex Terrain)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

19 pages, 14152 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Investigation and Estimation of Groundwater Level Fluctuation Potential: A Case Study in the Pei-Kang River Basin and Chou-Shui River Basin of the Taiwan Mountainous Region

by Nai-Chin Chen, Hui-Yu Wen, Feng-Mei Li, Shih-Meng Hsu, Chien-Chung Ke, Yen-Tsu Lin and Chi-Chao Huang

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(14), 7060; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app12147060 - 13 Jul 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1376

Abstract

The analysis of the spatiotemporal characteristics of groundwater level variation is a prerequisite for evaluating groundwater potential or underpinning aquifer sustainability development in hydrogeological engineering practices. This study explores the dominant influencing factors that control groundwater dynamics and develops an estimation of groundwater level fluctuation (GWLF) potential in the complex aquifer systems of mountainous areas. Eight natural environmental factors, including slope, drainage density, land use, lithology, hydraulic conductivity, porosity, groundwater depth, and regolith thickness, have been selected as influencing factors, and the feature scores for different factors associated with GWLF potential were given with the expert scoring method. The weighting coefficients of individual influencing factors for wet/dry seasons were determined using the pseudo-inverse method based on the groundwater level data of 18 well stations observed from 1 November 2011 to 31 October 2019 in Taiwan mountainous areas. The results show that the weighting coefficients of these factors in controlling GWLF potential are variable and affected by seasonal and annual rainfall conditions. Based on the determined weighting coefficients, the spatial distribution of GWLF potential can be effectively produced. Finally, the simulated GWLF potential results were verified by comparing the observed data. The verification result demonstrates that the developed model can predict the spatial GWLF distribution based on the groundwater level data from a few wells. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploration and Sustainable Management of Groundwater Resources in Geologically Complex Terrain)

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14 pages, 5041 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Groundwater Detection Using the Pseudo-3D Resistivity Method: A History of Case Studies

by Xinjie Chen, Zhenwei Guo, Chunming Liu, Jianxin Liu and Qihong Wu

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(13), 6788; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app12136788 - 04 Jul 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1731

Abstract

With the rapid growth of the economy and population, the desire to use groundwater supplies is increasing. In order to detect groundwater, conducting a geophysics survey is a common way to map the subsurface. This method can describe the subsurface’s physical properties. For example, the direct current (DC) resistivity method provides a resistivity map of the subsurface, in which the groundwater is normally located in low resistivity anomaly zones. However, the DC method needs to overcome the challenges of the urban environment, with its infrastructure and background noise. In this paper, we propose a pseudo-3D resistivity surveying method to solve these problems, and it is applied to situations of groundwater detection within the city environment, dam leakage, and drinking water. From the pseudo-3D resistivity surveying, we detected the low-resistivity anomaly in the area, which is interpreted as groundwater through borehole verification. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploration and Sustainable Management of Groundwater Resources in Geologically Complex Terrain)

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16 pages, 3884 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Optimized Pilot Point Emplacement Based Groundwater Flow Calibration Method for Heterogeneous Small-Scale Area

by Tahirinandraina Prudence Rabemaharitra, Yanhong Zou, Zhuowei Yi, Yong He and Umair Khan

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(9), 4648; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app12094648 - 06 May 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1582

Abstract

Groundwater flow modeling in a small-scale area requires practical techniques to obtain high accuracy results. The effectiveness of the model calibration is the most challenging for simulating the hydraulic head. In pursuit of this, we proposed an optimized groundwater flow calibration method based on the pilot point emplacement technique for a 3D small-scale area in this work. Subsequently, two emplacement structures were tested during the experimentation, the regular pilot point placement, and the middle head measurement down gradient (MHMDG) placement with two different densities. The parameter estimation (PEST) numerical code applying the kriging interpolation was used to estimate the hydraulic conductivity field by MODFLOW. Moreover, geological SGrid models were chosen for the conceptual model. Thirty-seven observation wells were used for experimental simulations to test the proposed method in a heterogeneous confined aquifer. The result shows that the small-scale modeling was complicated, and the studying area presented a significant heterogeneity in horizontal hydraulic conductivity. The middle head measurement down gradient (MHMDG) pilot point case with the larger density gave the best R-squared 0.901 and minimum residual error of 0.0053 m compared to 0.880 and 0.078 m, respectively, for the regular placement. The calibration accuracy depended on the frequency and the emplacement of the pilot point. Therefore, the initial value should be technically selected to minimize the computation burden. The proposed techniques help to improve the groundwater flow model calibration based on the pilot point methodology for groundwater resources management. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploration and Sustainable Management of Groundwater Resources in Geologically Complex Terrain)

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18 pages, 18287 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Integrated Hydrological Analysis of Little Akaki Watershed Using SWAT-MODFLOW, Ethiopia

by Mesfin Benti Tolera and Il-Moon Chung

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(13), 6011; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11136011 - 28 Jun 2021

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2454

Abstract

In Ethiopia, groundwater is the main source of freshwater to support human consumption and socio-economic development. Little Akaki watershed is located in Upper Awash basin, known for its high annual rainfall and considered as the potential groundwater recharge zone. On the contrary, urbanization and industrial expansion are increasing at an alarming rate in the area. This became a concern threatening the groundwater resources’ sustainability. To address these challenges, integrated analysis of groundwater recharge and groundwater numerical simulations were made. For groundwater recharge estimation, SWAT model was used. The result indicated that recharge in the watershed mostly occurs from July to October with maximum values in August. On average, the estimated annual catchment recharge was 179 mm. For the numerical simulation and prediction of the groundwater flow system, MODFLOW 2005 was used. The model simulations indicated that the groundwater head converges towards the main river and, finally, to the outlet of the watershed. The study indicated areas of interactions between the river and groundwater. The scenario examination result reveals increasing the present pumping rate by over fifty percent (by 50%, 100%, and 200%) will surely cause visible groundwater head decline near the outlet of the watershed, and substantial river baseflow reduction. The recharge reduction scenario also indicates the huge risk of groundwater sustainability in the area. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploration and Sustainable Management of Groundwater Resources in Geologically Complex Terrain)

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35 pages, 5335 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Review of Geochemical Modeling for the Performance Assessment of Radioactive Waste Disposal in a Subsurface System

by Suu-Yan Liang, Wen-Sheng Lin, Chan-Po Chen, Chen-Wuing Liu and Chihhao Fan

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(13), 5879; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11135879 - 24 Jun 2021

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3639

Abstract

Radionuclides are inorganic substances, and the solubility of inorganic substances is a major factor affecting the disposal of radioactive waste and the release of concentrations of radionuclides. The degree of solubility determines whether a nuclide source migrates to the far field of a radioactive waste disposal site. Therefore, the most effective method for retarding radionuclide migration is to reduce the radionuclide solubility in the aqueous geochemical environment of subsurface systems. In order to assess the performance of disposal facilities, thermodynamic data regarding nuclides in water–rock systems and minerals in geochemical environments are required; the results obtained from the analysis of these data can provide a strong scientific basis for maintaining safety performance to support nuclear waste management. The pH, Eh and time ranges in the environments of disposal sites cannot be controlled, in contrast to those under experimental conditions in laboratories. Using a hypothetical error mechanism for the safety assessment of disposal sites may engender incorrect assessment results. Studies have focused on radionuclide reactions in waste disposal, and have offered evidence suggesting that these reactions are mainly affected by the geochemical environment. However, studies have not examined the thermodynamics of chemical reactions or interactions between water and minerals, such as the surface complexation and adsorption of various nuclide-ion species. Simple coefficient models have usually been applied in order to obtain empirical formulas for deriving Kd to describe nuclide distributions in the solid or liquid phase in water–rock geochemical systems. Accordingly, this study reviewed previous research on the applications of geochemical models, including studies on the development of geochemical models, sources of thermodynamic databases (TDBs) and their applications in programs, the determination of the adequacy of TDBs in surface complexation models and case studies, and the selection and application of activity coefficient equations in geochemical models. In addition, the study conducted case studies and comparisons of the activity coefficients derived by different geochemical models. Three activity coefficient equations, namely the Davies, modified Debye–Hückel, and Pitzer equations, and four geochemical models, namely PHREEQC, MINEQL+, MINTEQA2, and EQ3/6, were used in the study. The results demonstrated that when the solution’s ionic strength was <0.5 m, the differences in the activity coefficients between the Davies and modified Debye–Hückel equations were <5%. The difference between the Pitzer and Davies equations, or between the Pitzer and modified Debye–Hückel equations in terms of the calculated activity coefficients was <8%. The effect of temperature on the activity coefficient slightly influenced the modeling outputs of the Davies and modified Debye–Hückel equations. In the future, the probability distribution and uncertainty of parameters of Kd and the equilibrium constant can be used in geochemical and reactive transport models to simulate the long-term safety of nuclear waste disposal sites. The findings of this study can provide a strong scientific basis for conducting safety assessments of nuclear waste disposal repositories and developing environmental management or remediation schemes to control sites marred by near-surface contamination. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploration and Sustainable Management of Groundwater Resources in Geologically Complex Terrain)

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23 pages, 3096 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Use of Hydraulic Test Data to Recognize Fracture Network Pattern of Rock Mass in Taiwan Mountainous Areas

by Shih-Meng Hsu, Chien-Ming Chiu, Chien-Chung Ke, Cheng-Yu Ku and Hao-Lun Lin

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(5), 2127; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11052127 - 27 Feb 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2085

Abstract

Comprehensive information on fracture network properties around a borehole is indispensable for developing a hydrogeological site descriptive model. However, such information usually relies on various cross-hole field tests at a high cost. This study presents a cost-effective option regarding the identification of fracture network density around a borehole. Based on packer-test and drilling-core data from 104 boreholes in Taiwan mountainous areas, Barker’s generalized transient radial flow model and the concept of fractal flow dimension were used to reanalyze the existing hydraulic test data for obtaining the n value related to the geometry of groundwater flow for each test section. The analyzed n value was utilized to explain the characteristics of the fracture network in the adjacent area of each packer inspection section. The interpretation results were verified, using five hydrogeological indicators, namely rock-quality designation, fracture aperture, fracture density, hydraulic conductivity, and fracture/matrix permeability ratio. All hydrogeological indices have high correlations with flow dimension n values. Based on the verification results from using these indices, the proposed method in exploring such information was proven to be feasible. Finally, three practical relations were established, to provide additional information for designing and planning groundwater-related engineering systems in Taiwan mountainous areas. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploration and Sustainable Management of Groundwater Resources in Geologically Complex Terrain)

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18 pages, 3226 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessing Groundwater Level with a Unified Seasonal Outlook and Hydrological Modeling Projection

by Jing-Ying Huang and Dong-Sin Shih

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(24), 8882; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10248882 - 12 Dec 2020

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1615

Abstract

Although the annual rainfall in Taiwan is high, water shortages still occasionally occur owing to its nonuniform temporal and spatial distribution. At these times, the groundwater is considered an acceptable alternative water source. Groundwater is of particular value because it is considered a clean and reliable source of fresh water. To prevent water scarcity, this study utilized seasonal forecasting by incorporating hydrological models to evaluate the seasonal groundwater level. The seasonal prospective issued by the Central Weather Bureau of Taiwan (CWB) was combined with weather generator data to construct seasonal weather forecasts as the input for hydrological models. A rainfall-runoff model, HEC-HMS, and a coupled groundwater and surface water model, WASH123D, were applied to simulate the seasonal groundwater levels. The Fengshan Creek basin in northern Taiwan was selected as a study site to test the proposed approach. The simulations demonstrated stability and feasibility, and the results agreed with the observed groundwater table. The calibrations indicated that the average errors of river stage were 0.850 for R², 0.279 for root-mean-square error (RMSE), and 0.824 for efficiency coefficient (CE). The simulation also revealed that the simulated groundwater table corresponded with observed hydrographs very well (R² of 0.607, RMSE of 0.282 m, and CE of 0.621). The parameters were verified in this study, and they were deemed practical and adequate for subsequent seasonal assessment. The seasonal forecast of 2018 at Guanxi station indicated that the 25th and 75th percentiles of simulated annual rainfall were within 1921–3285 mm and the actual annual rainfall was 2031 mm. Its seasonal rainfall outlook was around 30% accurate for forecasts of three consecutive months in 2018. Similarly, at Xinpu station, its seasonal rainfall outlook was about 40% accurate, and the amount of annual rainfall (1295 mm) was within the range of the 25th and 75th percentiles (1193–1852 mm). This revealed that the actual annual precipitations at both Guanxi and Xinpu station corresponded with the range of 25th and 75th percentiles of simulated rainfall, even if the accurate rate for the 3 month seasonal forecast had some error. The subsequent groundwater simulations were overestimated because the amount of actual rainfall was far lower than the average of the historical record in some dry season months. However, the amount of rainfall returned to normal values during the wet seasons, where the seasonal forecast and observation results were similar. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploration and Sustainable Management of Groundwater Resources in Geologically Complex Terrain)

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31 pages, 7518 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Integrating In-Situ Data and RS-GIS Techniques to Identify Groundwater Potential Sites in Mountainous Regions of Taiwan

by Jung-Jun Lin and Yuei-An Liou

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(12), 4119; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app10124119 - 15 Jun 2020

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2585

Abstract

Due to rapid urbanization, the development of megacities and metropolises worldwide is creating water scarcity, social-environmental risk, and challenges to the regions where water supply from rivers and alluvial aquifers is insufficient and unstable. Groundwater exploration in fractured bedrock of mountainous regions is thus a crucial issue in the search for substitute water resources. To achieve cost effectiveness on groundwater exploration, the use of comprehensive remote sensing (RS)- and geographic information system (GIS)-based models appears feasible. The required parameters selected and analyzed from the literature depend on the hydrogeological characteristics. This study intends to investigate and improve the proposed parameters and data sources upon those presented in the literature. A total of 17 hydrogeological units of concern was delineated from 105 complex geological formations of the geological sections and main rock types. The other parameters related to groundwater potential were derived from the digital elevation model and Landsat imagery. In addition, 118 drilling cores were inspected and in-situ well yield data from 72 wells were employed to assess the normalized groundwater potential index in the raster-based empirical GIS model with a higher spatial resolution. The results show that the accuracy of the interpretation of groundwater potential sites improved from 48.6% to 84.7%. The three-dimensional (3D) visualization of a thematic map integrated with satellite imagery is useful as a cost-effective approach for assessing groundwater potential. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploration and Sustainable Management of Groundwater Resources in Geologically Complex Terrain)

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24 pages, 4577 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Groundwater Level Fluctuation Analysis in a Semi-Urban Area Using Statistical Methods and Data Mining Techniques—A Case Study in Wrocław, Poland

by Magdalena Worsa-Kozak, Radosław Zimroz, Anna Michalak, Christian Wolkersdorfer, Agnieszka Wyłomańska and Marek Kowalczyk

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(10), 3553; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app10103553 - 21 May 2020

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 5132

Abstract

Long-term groundwater level analysis, which is usually based on traditionally defined hydrological years is essential in an era of global warming and other climatic and environmental changes, especially in urban areas. A complex interplay of multiple factors influencing the groundwater level makes the investigation of their interdependencies a challenge. Based on multiple data sets and a long time series available as well as specific geological and hydrological conditions, a semi-urban district of Wrocław/Poland was selected as a case study for investigating these dependencies. This paper presents an interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of groundwater level fluctuations by combining mathematics, signal processing, hydrogeology, and meteorology. Applying well-known methods from disciplines other than hydrogeology, the authors investigated seasonal behavior and similarity of groundwater level fluctuations during 15 hydrological years. Based on segmentation and agglomerative clustering (AHP), five classes of groundwater levels fluctuations for predefined hydrologic years and the corresponding seasons were identified and compared to the classification scheme by Pleczyński. Additionally, the relationship between precipitation and groundwater level was investigated using Pearson, Kendall and Spearman correlations. This led to the identification of “typical” and “untypical” seasons for the correlation between the cumulative precipitation sum and groundwater levels. The results presented here will be used for further investigations of groundwater level fluctuations using additional factors and statistical methods. These aim to identify periods that describe similarities better than the commonly used hydrological year. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploration and Sustainable Management of Groundwater Resources in Geologically Complex Terrain)

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23 pages, 11347 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Three-Dimensional Numerical Investigation on the Efficiency of Subsurface Drainage for Large-Scale Landslides

by Der-Guey Lin, Kuo-Ching Chang, Cheng-Yu Ku and Jui-Ching Chou

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(10), 3346; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app10103346 - 12 May 2020

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3381

Abstract

This paper presents a field monitoring study with emphasis on the design and construction of a subsurface drainage system and evaluation of its stabilization efficiency on the slope of You-Ye-Lin landslide using a three-dimensional finite element method program (Plaxis 3D) for the groundwater flow and slope stability analyses. The subsurface drainage system consists of two 4-m diameter drainage wells with multi-level horizontal drains and was installed to draw down the groundwater level and stabilize the unstable slope of the landslide. Results demonstrate that the subsurface drainage system is functional and capable of accelerating the drainage of the infiltrated rainwater during torrential rainfalls during the typhoon season. The large groundwater drawdown by the subsurface drainage system protects the slopes from further deterioration and maintains the slope stability at an acceptable and satisfactory level. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploration and Sustainable Management of Groundwater Resources in Geologically Complex Terrain)

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