Hydraulic properties of the aquifer-aquitard system and their impacts on regional groundwater flow in the Pearl River Delta, China

Abstract

Groundwater is now being considered as an alternative water supply in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) because of the increasing demand for fresh water coupled with deterioration in river water quality as a result of rapid urbanization and industrialization. There are thick aquitards in the PRD as a result of several times transgression and regression in the Holocene. This study considers this aquitards as a research object because it has a significant impact on the underneath confined aquifer. It is necessary to analyze the hydraulic properties of the aquitards. A slug-test is a reasonable method to determine the hydraulic conductivity and specific storage of the low-permeability aquitards of silt and clay in the PRD. In this study, several slug-test methods were used to determine the hydraulic parameters of aquitards in several piezometers at the key site MZ04in the PRD. The results from these methods were compared to obtain the most reasonable group of hydraulic parameters. A reasonable equivalent numerical method is applied at the key site MZ04 site after the calibration with the C-B-P solution and the KGS model. The natural groundwater regime is obtained, which is helpful for the further research. A three-dimensional numerical model using MODFLOW is carried out under some assumptions and the simplification for the sediments structure. The characteristics of regional groundwater flow and the influence of hydraulic properties of the aquifer-aquitard system on groundwater flow were analyzed. The simulated groundwater level both in the unconfined aquifer and confined aquifer agree reasonably well with the observed data. Study on the water budget of the groundwater showed that the quantity of ground water discharged from participation to participate the water exchange is very small. In the groundwater participated water exchange, 97% of them flow into rivers, while only 3% of them flow into the sea. Moreover, the vertical flow is more important than the horizontal flow to the regional ground water balance in aquitards according to the water budget obtained from the model.

The research of the PRD needs numerous data due to the complicated deposition and evolution process of the sediments and the intensive river network. The modeling results are preliminary because of the complexity of the geological and hydrogeological conditions in the PRD and the limitation of the observed water level data. The hydraulic parameters calculated for this study and the model results can provide a basis for further research on groundwater in the PRD.