Using earth-tide induced water pressure changes to measure in situ permeability: A comparison with long-term pumping tests

Abstract

Good constraints on hydrogeological properties are an important first step in any quantitative model of groundwater flow. Field estimation of permeability is difficult as it varies over orders of magnitude in natural systems and is scale-dependent. Here we directly compare permeabilities inferred from tidal responses with conventional large-scale, long-term pumping tests at the same site. Tidally induced water pressure changes recorded in wells are used to infer permeability at ten locations in a densely fractured sandstone unit. Each location is either an open-hole well or a port in a multilevel monitoring well. Tidal response is compared at each location to the results of two conventional, long-term and large scale pumping tests performed at the same site. We obtained consistent values between the methods for a range of site-specific permeabilities varying from 10-15 m2 to 10-13 m2 for both open wells with large open intervals and multilevel monitoring well. We conclude that the tidal analysis is able to capture passive and accurate estimates of permeability.