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    Abstract An approach for better understanding of the physical implication of estimated aquifer parameters is demonstrated by analysing the pumping test data at Cottam in the Nottingham aquifer, UK. A sensitivity analysis showed that the area represented by the estimated parameters was much smaller than the area covered by the depression cone. After parameters are estimated, further research should be carried out to understand what portions of the aquifer the parameters represent. The parameters estimated at Cottam represented mainly aquifer features between roughly 100 and 2000 m. The sensitivity analysis also showed that the observed drawdown being satisfactorily matched by a model with uniform parameters does not prove that the aquifer is homogeneous. Slightly anomalous data may imply the existence of large anomalous zones. Although the drawdowns at Cottam could be ‘satisfactorily’ fitted by a model with uniform parameters, the fit could be improved by a model using a more permeable aquifer but with a zone about 700 m wide and with 42% less transmissivity.
    Cone of depression
    Drawdown (hydrology)
    Aquifer test
    Aquifer properties
    Citations (5)
    Wells screened across multiple aquifers can provide pathways for the movement of surprisingly large volumes of groundwater to confined aquifers used for public water supply (PWS). Using a simple numerical model, we examine the impact of several pumping scenarios on leakage from an unconfined aquifer to a confined aquifer and conclude that a single inactive multi-aquifer well can contribute nearly 10% of total PWS well flow over a wide range of pumping rates. This leakage can occur even when the multi-aquifer well is more than a kilometer from the PWS well. The contribution from multi-aquifer wells may be greater under conditions where seasonal pumping (e.g., irrigation) creates large, widespread downward hydraulic gradients between aquifers. Under those conditions, water can continue to leak down a multi-aquifer well from an unconfined aquifer to a confined aquifer even when those multi-aquifer wells are actively pumped. An important implication is that, if an unconfined aquifer is contaminated, multi-aquifer wells can increase the vulnerability of a confined-aquifer PWS well.
    The buried‐valley aquifers that are common in the glacial deposits of the northern hemisphere are a typical case of the strip aquifers that occur in many parts of the world. Pumping from a narrow strip aquifer leads to much greater drawdown and much more distant drawdown effects then would occur in a sheet aquifer with a similar transmissivity and storage coefficient. Widely used theories for radial flow to wells, such as the Theis equation, are not appropriate for narrow strip aquifers. Previously published theory for flow to wells in semiconfined strip aquifers is reviewed and a practical format of the type curves for pumping‐test analysis is described. The drawdown response of strip aquifers to pumping tests is distinctive, especially for observation wells near the pumped well. A case study is presented, based on extensive pumping test experience for the Estevan Valley Aquifer in southern Saskatchewan, Canada. Evaluation of groundwater resources in such buried‐valley aquifers needs to take into account the unusually large drawdowns in response to pumping.
    Drawdown (hydrology)
    Aquifer test
    Aquifer properties
    Water well
    Surficial aquifer
    Cone of depression
    Slug test