Geostatistical analysis of high-resolution hydraulic conductivity estimates from the hydraulic profiling tool and integration with hydraulic tomography at a highly heterogeneous field site

Hydraulic profiling tool (HPT) and hydraulic tomography (HT) have been developed as promising techniques for the high-resolution characterization of surficial aquifer systems. HPT surveys can be rapidly conducted at a resolution of 1.5-cm, but provide only one-dimensional vertical profiles and require site-specific formulae to relate HPT measurements to K. Geostatistics-based HT can estimate three-dimensional distributions of hydraulic parameters, but may fail to provide detailed information and can be smooth when pumping/observation data density is sparse and usually are constrained to the area enclosed by the pumping and observation network. In this study, HPT and HT surveys were conducted at the North Campus Research Site (NCRS) in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada to characterize a glaciofluvial multi-aquifer-aquitard system with permeameter K values spanning nearly seven orders of magnitude. We first performed the geostatistical analysis of K values derived from 11 HPT surveys using the power-law model developed for the NCRS by Zhao and Illman (2022b). Then, the benefits of incorporating HPT K profiles into HT were evaluated for the reconstruction of hydraulic parameter fields. Results showed that the arithmetic mean of 11 HPT K profiles was nearly one order of magnitude higher than that of the 544 permeameter test K measurements. The K fields interpolated by ordinary kriging captured the vertical alternating layering patterns of aquifer and aquitard layers, while they over-predicted the values by nearly one order of magnitude than permeameter K for the top part of the aquifer system. By incorporating the kriged K values as prior means for the geostatistics-based HT, improvements were found in capturing spatial heterogeneity of K fields for areas both inside and outside the well cluster and in drawdown predictions than the inversion case using only pressure head data. The inclusion of vertical variation information of K derived from HPT into HT was also helpful in refining the vertical locations of estimated layer boundaries and introducing intralayer variation patterns of K for both aquifer and aquitard layers. This study demonstrates the potential ability of HT and HPT and advocates the joint use of both techniques for the characterization of subsurface heterogeneity at highly heterogeneous sites such as the NCRS.

Automated summary

Hydraulic profiling tool (HPT) and hydraulic tomography (HT) are promising techniques for high-resolution characterization of surficial aquifer systems. HPT surveys provide rapid one-dimensional vertical profiles, while HT can estimate three-dimensional distributions of hydraulic parameters. This study evaluated the benefits of incorporating HPT profiles into HT for characterizing a highly heterogeneous glaciofluvial multi-aquifer-aquitard system. Results showed that combining HPT and HT improved the capture of spatial heterogeneity and refinement of layer boundaries, demonstrating the potential of these techniques for subsurface characterization.