Estimation of Hydrological Parameters from Geoelectrical Measurements

Abstract

AIn the coastal aquifer of the lowlands on the right side of the river Sinaloa there is need for fresh water for agricultural development since, around 15% of the water used in agricultural irrigation, is from underground sources. This situation is exacerbated in periods of drought, which promotes drilling with the risk of finding brackish water in them; besides, there is the risk of not meeting water demand due to low hydraulic transmissivity (T) of the aquifer, putting at risk the drilling costs that this implies. In this sense, the determination of T and K (hydraulic conductivity) is important for the development and management of groundwater exploitation of the study area. Generally by means of pumping tests in wells, T is obtained, with high costs, so there are few values of T. K is generally obtained by wells and laboratory test. The aim of this chapter is to establish an empirical relationship between T and K with Dar-Zarrouk parameter in porous media, transverse resistance (TR), in addition to a characterization of the water quality through the electrical resistivity. This parameter is estimated from surface resistivity measurements, which are more economical in relation to the pumping tests; thus, T was characterized in the study area. The coefficient of correlation of the exponential adjustment is 0.79 and the relation is T = 137185.7 T R 0.020758 − 156691 and K = 367.21 0.0548 − 518.813 with coefficient of correlation of 0.678.