The role of poroviscosity in evaluating land subsidence due to groundwater extraction from sedimentary basin sequences

Abstract

This paper describes research being carried out on the development of the role of poroviscosity in determining land subsidence due to groundwater extraction. Poroviscosity incorporates early-time (so-called instantaneous), intermediate (so-called primary consolidation) and late time (creep or so-called secondary compression) into one unified theory of time dependent skeletal compression. It requires only one constant to be evaluated for one-dimensional behaviour and at any time exhibits a semilogarithmic stress/strain relationship. Poroviscous theory should accordingly provide an improved accuracy of land subsidence prediction results when saturated sedimentary basin sequences are depressurized.