Ms.

Sadia Ismail
(Assistant Professor)
B.Sc in Geological Engineering
(Geological Engineering Department)

M.Sc in Geotechnical Engineering

(Civil Engineering Department)
Ph.D in Geological Engineering (In Progress)
(Geological Engineering Department)
HYDROGEOLOGY
 Hydrogeology
• (hydro- meaning water, and -geology meaning the
study of rocks) is the part of hydrology that deals
with the distribution and movement of
groundwater in the soil and rocks beneath the
Earth's surface (commonly in aquifers ).
 Hydrology
• ( the "study of water") is
the study of the
movement, distribution,
and quality of water on
,above and below the
earth’s surface.
• The domain of hydrology
embraces the full live
history of water on
Earth” (Maidment,
1992).
 Applications of hydrogeology

• Designing irrigation schemes and managing

agricultural productivity.
• Providing drinking water.
• Water quality.
• Designing dams for water supply or hydroelectric
power generation.
• Fluid Storage.
 Applications of hydrogeology

• Assessing contaminant transport risk and

establishing environmental policy guidelines.
• Detail study of well hydraulics.
• Aquifer evaluation methods.
 Principles of groundwater flow
Groundwater possess energy in three forms:
• Mechanical energy
• Thermal energy
• Chemical energy
Groundwater is forced to move from one region to
another in nature’s attempt to eliminate these
energy differentials.
 Outside Forces Acting on Ground
Water
• Gravity –pulls ground water downward
• External pressure
• Atmospheric pressure above the zone of saturation
• Molecular attraction
Cause water to adhere to solid surfaces
 Measurement of energy of fluid
• Peizometers are used to measure the total energy
of fluid flowing through a pipe .
• Peizometer is a small diameter pipe and used to
measure the hydraulic head at a point in the
aquifer.
• Peizometer is open at the top and bottom and
water rises in it in direct proportion to the total
fluid energy at the point at which the bottom of the
peizometer is open in the aquifer.
Hydraulic head
 Hydraulic head

• h is a measure of the
mechanical energy that
causes groundwater to
flow. Hydraulic head
(h) can be calculated:
• the sum of pressure
head (hp) and elevation
head (z), or h=(hp + z).
 Elevation head

• Elevation head is the

height of the measuring
point above the datum.
 Pressure head

• Pressure head is the height

of the water in the well
above the depth of the
peizometer.
 Point water Head
• Which is the water level in a well filled with water
coming from a point in an aquifer and which is
just enough to balance the pressure in the aquifer
at that point.
 Fresh water Head
• Which is the height of a column of fresh water in
the well that is just sufficient to balance the
pressure in the aquifer at that point
• Elevation head is same for both point and fresh
water head.
Heads in Water (Liquid) with
Various Densities
 Flow nets
• A set of flow lines and
equipotential lines is
called a flow net.
 Equipotential line
• A line in a two
dimensional
groundwater flow field
such that the total
hydraulic head is the
same for all the points
along the line.
 Flow lines
• It is an imaginary line that traces the path that a
particle of groundwater would follow as it flows
through an aquifer.In an isotropic aquifer flow
lines will cross equipotential lines at right angles.
 How can water move
underground?
• Groundwater movement depends upon hydraulic
gradient:
• hydraulic gradient is simply the slope of the water
table or potentiometric surface.
 How can water move
underground
Horizontal hydraulic gradient:
• It is the change in hydraulic head over the change
in distance between the two monitoring wells or
dh/dl.
• In mathematical terms,
• dh/dl= difference in head / horizontal distance
between wells= (h2 - h1) / L
 How can water move
underground
• Vertical hydraulic
gradient
• dh/dl = difference in
head / vertical distance
between wells= (h2 -
h1) / (z2-z1)
 Steady State Flow
• In which conditions does not change with time.
• It occurs when at any point in a flow field ,the
magnitude and direction of flow velocity are
constant with time.
• When the flow is steady, streamlines are often
used to represent the trajectories of the fluid
particles.
• Steady flow is often called streamline flow.
 Unsteady state flow
• In which conditions will change with time.
• It occurs when at any point in a flow field ,the
magnitude and direction of flow velocity are not
constant with time
 Laminar flow
• Laminar flow occurs when a fluid flows in
parallel layers, with no disruption between the
layers. At low velocities the fluid tends to flow
without lateral mixing, and adjacent layers slide
past one another. There are no cross currents
perpendicular to the direction of flow. In laminar
flow the motion of the particles of fluid is very
orderly with all particles moving in straight lines
parallel to the pipe walls.
 Turbulent Flow

• When fluid flow at higher flow rates, the

streamlines are not steady and straight and the
flow is not laminar. Generally, the flow field will
vary in both space and time with fluctuations that
comprise "turbulence
Viscous or Nonviscous Fluid Flow
• A viscous fluid, such as honey, does not flow
readily and is said to have a large viscosity.
• In contrast, water is less viscous and flows more
readily; water has a smaller viscosity than honey.
• Although no real fluid has zero viscosity at normal
temperatures, some fluids have negligibly small
viscosities.
• An incompressible, nonviscous fluid is called an
ideal fluid
 Distribution of Groundwater
Zone of aeration :
The vadose zone is part of the unsaturated zone.
The unsaturated zone is directly below the surface
and contains some water. In the unsaturated zone,
water and air fill the voids between soil or rock
particles.
 Water table
• The groundwater
surface at which the
hydrostatic pressure
becomes equal to the
pore water pressure is
called as the water
table.
 Water table
• The point where the zone of aeration meets the
zone of saturation is known as the water table.
Water table levels fluctuate naturally throughout
the year based on seasonal variations. In addition,
the depth to the water table varies. For example, in
some areas, the water table may be as shallow as 2
inches below the surface, while in the Desert the
water table may be 600 feet below the surface.
 Zone of saturation
All the pores and cracks filled with water in the zone
of saturation. In the zone of saturation, the
subsurface is completely saturated with water. The
saturated zone may form an aquifer.
 Meteoric water

• Water from the

atmosphere such as
rain ,snow ,hail ,
 Juvenile water

• Water that is released

by the cooling of
magma or the eruption
of volcano.
 Fresh water

• Water that contains

less than 1,000 (mg/L)
of dissolved solids,
generally more than
500 (mg/L) is
undesirable for
drinking and many
industrial uses.
 Potable water

• Water of a quality
suitable for drinking.
 How can water move
underground?
Groundwater movement depends upon rock:
• Porosity :
Percentage of pore space available to hold
water.
• Permeability :
Ability to transmit water through connected
pore spaces.
 Porosity

Some rocks have pore spaces but they do not allow

water to pass through. - Clay and shale .
The porosity of a porous medium (such as rock or
sediment) describes the fraction of void space in
the material, where the void may contain, for
example, air or water. It is defined by the ratio:
• where VV is the volume of void-space (such as
fluids) and VT is the total or bulk volume of
material, including the solid and void components.
Both the mathematical symbols φ and n are used
to denote porosity.
• Porosity is a fraction between 0 and 1, typically
ranging from less than 0.01 for solid granite to
more than 0.5 for peat and clay, although it may
also be represented in percent terms by
multiplying the fraction by 100.
 Permeability

• Rocks that allow water to pass through them are

called permeable. Rocks that do not allow water to
pass through are called impermeable.
• Permeability in the earth sciences (commonly
symbolized as κ, or k) is a measure of the ability
of a material (typically, a rock or unconsolidated
material) to transmit fluids.
 Hydraulic Conductivity
• Hydraulic conductivity, symbolically represented
as K, is a property of soil or rock, that describes
the ease with which water can move through pore
spaces or fractures.
 Transmissivity
• The rate at which the water is transmitted through
a unit width of aquifer under a unit hydraulic
gradient.
• T =kb
• Where k = Hydraulic conductivity
b = Saturated thickness of aquifer
 Specific Retention
• It is retained water that held in place against
gravity.
• % of volume of water that will retain after
saturation against the force of gravity
• Sr = 100 * Wr /V
 Storage Coefficient
• Volume of water that an aquifer releases from or
takes into storage per unit surface area of aquifer
per unit change in head.
• S = Vw /A * delta h
 Specific Yield
• It is the ratio of volume of water that can be
drained from a soil unit under gravity to the total
volume of the soil unit.
• Sy = 100 * Wy /V
• Typical values are between 0.01 and 0.3.
 Specific Storage
• Volume of water that an aquifer releases from or
takes into storage per unit volume of aquifer per
unit decline in hydraulic head.
• Ss =S /b
• Where S = Storage Coefficient
b = Thickness of the aquifer
Typical values for the confined storage coefficient
are 5x10-5 to 5x10-3.
 Aquifers
• A formation ,group of formation ,or part of
formation that contain sufficient saturated
,permeable material to yield significant quantities
of water to wells.
• The best aquifers (groundwater storage areas) are
both:
• Porous
• Permeable
• Sandstone is a good example of an aquifer
 Confined Aquifer
• An aquifer that is
overlain by a
confining bed .
 Unconfined Aquifer
• An aquifer in which
there are no confining
beds between the zone
of saturation and the
surface.
 Aquitard

• Tard follows from the latin word means slow

• Poorly permeable formation that does not yield
water freely to wells
• It slowly leak water vertically to adjacent aquifer
• example : sandy clay
 Aquiclude
• derieved from the latin word means to shut or
close.
• A geologic formation that may contain ground
water but is incapable of transferring that water to
the surface.
• Example :clay
 Aquifuge
• impermeable ground, a layer of rock, sediment,
or soil through which ground water cannot flow.
• Example : Rocks
 Artesian well
• A well deriving its
water from a confined
aquifer such that the
static water level in
the well stands above
the ground surface.
 Homogeneity
• A characteristics of a medium in which material
properties are identical every where.
 Heterogeneity
• A characteristics of a medium in which material
properties vary from point to point.
• There are probably as many types of
hetrogeneous configuration but we may attention
to three broad classes:
• Layered Hetrogeneity
• Discontinuous Hetrogeneity
• Trending Hetrogeneity
• Layered Hetrogeneity:
• Individual beds
making up the
formation ,each have
the homogeneous
property but the entire
system can be thought
of as hetrogeneous.
• Discontinuous
Hetrogeneity:
• It is caused by the
presence of faults or
large scale of
stratigraphic features.
• Trending
Hetrogeneity:
• Trends are possible in
any type of geological
formation but
particularly common
in response to the
sedimentation process.
 Isotropic
• If the properties are independent of the direction
of movement at a point in a geological formation
,the formation is isotropic.
 Anisotropic
• If the properties varies with the direction of
movement at a point in a geological formation ,the
formation is anisotropic.
 Permeability through stratified soils
1. Horizontal Permeability
2. Vertical permeability

Horizontal Permeability:
Consider an aquifer consisting of three horizontal layers ,each
individually isotropic. Let k1 , k2 , k3 are the permeabilities of different
three layers. H1 , H2 , H3 are the thickness of the strata and q1 , q2 , q3
are the flow through each layer. For flow in the direction parallel to
the strata the hydraulic gradient in each layer is same. The total flow is
the sum of the flow in each layer and the total area of the section is
the sum of the areas of each layer.
 Vertical Permeability
• For the flow normal to the strata the total
flow is equal to the flow in each layer.
• The total area is equal to the area in each
layer and the head loss is equal to the sum
of head losses in the strata.
 Problem statement
• An unconfined aquifer consist of 3
horizontal layers ,each individually
isotropic .The top layer has a thickness of
10m and k= 11.6m/ day. The middle layer
has a thickness of 4.4m and k= 4.5m/ day.
The bottom layer has a thickness of 6.2m
and k= 2.2m/day .Compute the horizontal
and vertical permeability.