The East Kimberley Ord Bonaparte Plains Project: de-risking investment in agriculture and water infrastructure through airborne and ground geophysical investigations
Neil SymingtonLarysa HalasKen LawrieRoss C. BrodieRoss BrodieJohn MageeKok Piang TanD L BennettRichard J George
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Abstract:
The Ord Bonaparte Plains area is a priority area for irrigated agriculture development as part of the Ord Stage 3 development in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia. Irrigated agriculture in this area will depend on access to groundwater resources in underlying bedrock aquifers. A program of airborne electromagnetics (AEM), drilling, ground and borehole geophysics and hydrogeological investigations is being undertaken to confirm the presence of suitable groundwater resources, map the connectivity between surface and groundwater systems, and identify potential risks to agriculture and water infrastructure including salt stores, groundwater salinity and seawater intrusion.Preliminary analysis shows that the AEM survey has successfully mapped key elements of the groundwater system, including aquifer and aquitard extent, groundwater quality (salinity) distribution, hydraulic properties, compartmentalisation and inter-connectivity, the seawater intrusion (SWI) interface in coastal zones, and key tectonic elements of regional hydrogeological significance. The survey has mapped significant faulting within the Cockatoo Sandstone and Point Springs Sandstone aquifers, while conductivity distributions suggest that faults within and bounding major stratigraphic units display both fault barrier and conduit behaviour. The survey has also found that fresh groundwater in the aquifer system continues offshore as discontinuous lenses.Initial inversions have been used to target drilling, hydrochemical investigations, and a program of ground geophysics (including Surface Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (SNMR)). Further analysis and groundwater modelling is required to determine appropriate development and management of any groundwater resource and the potential risks to agricultural development.Keywords:
Bedrock
Saltwater intrusion
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Specific storage
Aquifer test
Aquifer properties
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The study examines the hydrogeological conditions and the hydraulic characteristics of the water bearing horizons within the hydrogeologic regime of the study area located west of Iraq to the west of longitude 40°40'. Also the study shed light on the flow behavior regime and its impacts on the groundwater movement, ground water flow velocities (permeability and hydraulic gradients) considering the regional structural phenomena. The Hydrogeological data presented as spatial distribution maps and three dimensional models. The results which were achieved from the field measurements are correlated with the main hydrogeologic control points such as storage and transmissivity coefficients, groundwater depths, aquifers thickness, lateral extensions and groundwater recharge to classify the hydrogeologic districts for development and exploitation. The hydrogeologic regime of the study area is classified and screened into various aquifers, including Ga'ra, Mullusi, Mullusi-Ubaid, Hartha, Tayarat-Digma (Jeed), Muhaywir-Ubaid and Rattga aquifers. The statistical results of the hydraulic and hydrochemical parameters were examined for explaining the spatial distribution of each parameter within the uppermost aquifers and determining the preference hydrogeologic districts for future groundwater exploitation as hereinafter order, Ubaid Mullusi aquifer within district-6, Rattga and Digma-Tayarat aquifer within district-7, Mullusi aquifer within district-2, Hartha aquifer within district-3, Digma-Tayarat aquifer within district-4, Ga'ra aquifer within district-1, Muhaywir-Ubaid aquifer within district-5 and Digma-Tayarat within district-8, respectively.
Aquifer properties
Aquifer test
Specific storage
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Declining groundwater levels resulting from groundwater withdrawals in the Santa Fe, New Mexico, area have caused concern about the future availability of water in the Tesuque aquifer system. This report describes the geohydrology of the Tesuque aquifer system in the Santa Fe area and presents a three-dimensional regional groundwater flow model which assesses the effects of existing and possible future groundwater withdrawals on the regional aquifer system. The model was calibrated using simulations of the predevelopment steady-state condition and the 1947-82 historical period. The response of the aquifer to two scenarios of future groundwater withdrawals from 1983 to 2020 was simulated. (USGS)
Groundwater model
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