Appiah-Adjei E.K., Shu L., Adjei K.A., Deng M., Wang X.
State Key Laboratory of Hydrology, Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, No.1 Xikang Road, Nanjing, 210098, China; Department of Geological Engineering, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana; College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, No. 1 Xikang Road, Nanjing, 210098, China; Department of Water Resources of Xinjiang, Xinjiang, 830063, China
Appiah-Adjei, E.K., State Key Laboratory of Hydrology, Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, No.1 Xikang Road, Nanjing, 210098, China, Department of Geological Engineering, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana; Shu, L., State Key Laboratory of Hydrology, Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, No.1 Xikang Road, Nanjing, 210098, China, College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, No. 1 Xikang Road, Nanjing, 210098, China; Adjei, K.A., State Key Laboratory of Hydrology, Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, No.1 Xikang Road, Nanjing, 210098, China; Deng, M., Department of Water Resources of Xinjiang, Xinjiang, 830063, China; Wang, X., State Key Laboratory of Hydrology, Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, No.1 Xikang Road, Nanjing, 210098, China
Effective evaluation, management and abstraction of groundwater resources of any aquifer require accurate and reliable estimates of its hydraulic parameters. This study, therefore, looks at the determination of hydraulic parameters of an unconfined aquifer using both analytical and numerical approaches. A long-duration pumping test data obtained from an unconfined aquifer system within the Tailan River basin in Xinjiang Autonomous Region in the northwest of China is used, in this study, to investigate the best method for estimating the parameters of the aquifer. The pumping test was conducted by pumping from a radial collector well and measuring the response in nine observation wells; all the wells used in the test were partially penetrating. Using two well-known tools, namely AquiferTest and MODFLOW, as an aid for the analytical and numerical approaches, respectively, the parameters of the aquifer were determined and their outputs compared. The estimated horizontal hydraulic conductivity, vertical hydraulic conductivity, and specific yield for the analytical approach are 38.1-50.30 m/day, 3.02-9.05 m/day and 0.204-0.339, respectively, while the corresponding numerical estimates are 20.50-35.24 m/day, 0.10-3.40 m/day, and 0.27-0.31, respectively. Comparing the two, the numerical estimates were found to be more representative of the aquifer in the study area since it simulated the groundwater flow conditions of the pumping test in the aquifer system better than the analytical solution. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.