Introduction to Aquifer Hydraulics

Abstract

Management of groundwater resources requires an understanding of the response of aquifers to groundwater withdrawals. Groundwater impact analyses are now usually performed by numerical groundwater flow and solute-transport modeling, which has become a specialized discipline. A basic knowledge of hydraulic principles is necessary for understanding the behavior of aquifers in arid and semiarid lands. A number of excellent references on groundwater hydraulics are available including Freeze and Cherry (1979), Lohman (1979), Heath (1983), Driscoll (1986), Kruseman and de Ridder (1970, 1991), Walton (1970, 1991), Kasenow (1997, 2006), Domenico and Schwartz (1998), Fetter (2001), and Todd and Mays (2005).