History of Hydrogeology

History of Hydrogeology

-Early 17th century – groundwater was believed to be seawater pumped up into the land by either tidal forces or air pressure, Some major advances in the development of hydrogeology as a science:

- In the latter part of the 17th century Pierre Perrault conducted hydrologic investigations in the Seine River basin First person to use a water balance approach to hydrogeology; he established that the local annual precipitation was more than ample to account for the annual runoff.

- Henri Darcy, a French hydraulic engineer, concluded that the rate of flow of a fluid through a porous media is directly proportional to the energy loss and inversely proportional to the length of the path of flow (1856).

- Arsène Dupuit (another French engineer) extended Darcy's work and developed equations for
underground flow toward a well, for the recharge of aquifers, and for the discharge of artesian wells.

- O.E. Meinzer (American scientist with the US Geol. Survey) published several seminal documents on the subject, including his 1923 USGS Water Supply Paper 489 (The occurrence of groundwater in the United States with a discussion of principals) and the 1942 book titled Hydrology.

- In 1935, C.V. Theis recognized the analogy between groundwater flow and heat flow. Why is this
important?

• At that time the mathematical characterization of heat flow was well developed, while the mathematics of groundwater flow were not
• Understanding the mathematics of heat flow allowed him to develop analytical equations for flow to wells; these are widely used in aquifer pumping test analysis and drawdown predictions

- In 1940, M. King Hubbert developed the theory that describes flow in large groundwater basins Identified the difference between regional and local flow systems

 

- Also in Jacob put forth groundwater flow theory that incorporates the elastic behavior of porous rocks
1940,

- In early 1960s, J. Tóth took Hubbert’s theoretical treatment of regional flow systems and Jacob’s
mathematics and used a computer to generate one of the first computer groundwater models

- 1970’s and 80’s: environmental and contamination issues became important; also research on
potential use of geothermal energy

- 1984: McDonald and Harbaugh publish the first version of MODFLOW

- 1990’s: drastic technological advances in personal computers makes groundwater modeling
widespread and available to everyone

- Current issues and contemporary areas of research:

• Groundwater resource studies, especially concerning water availability determination and long-term sustainability of groundwater resources.
• Flow in “non-porous media” (i.e., fractures and karst conduits), especially related to flow modeling and contaminant transport
• Effects of long-term climate change on groundwater resources