Author: Marcos Davalos Gutierrez
Davalos Gutierrez, Marcos, 2024 Hydrogeological conceptual model and numerical groundwater flow model of the Northern Adelaide Corridor, Flinders University, College of Science and Engineering
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The Northern Adelaide Corridor (NAC), South Australia, has potential to sustain groundwater irrigated agriculture, however, little is known about its hydrogeology since groundwater extraction is limited and it’s not in a prescribed wells area. A conceptual model and a numerical groundwater model were developed for the NAC to identify its main hydrogeological units, estimate their hydraulic conductivities and water balances, as well as to approximate a steady-state water table. The conceptual model is based on previous studies of the area or nearby and on the analysis of various environmental features such as topography, geology, and climate. The numerical groundwater flow model is based upon the conceptual model and was developed using the graphical user interface ModelMuse for MODFLOW-NWT. The numerical model is steady-state and incorporates different types of data such as topographic data, bore stratigraphic records, records from stream gauges, precipitation, evapotranspiration, and hydraulic head observations from monitoring networks and measured in-situ. The simulation of the calibrated numerical model allowed the computation of the hydraulic head distribution, the determination of the general direction of groundwater flow, estimate the water balances of the hydrostratigraphic units, and estimate the travel times of water particles given specific pathlines. Despite some significant data gaps encountered, the numerical model performed relatively well with a Root Mean Squared Residual (RMSR) of 2.52 m and provided a good conceptual model candidate that can be further refined.
Keywords: groundwater, conceptual model, numerical model, Northern Adelaide Corridor, groundwater modelling, model calibration
Subject: Science, Technology and Enterprise thesis
Thesis type: Masters
Completed: 2024
School: College of Science and Engineering
Supervisor: Dr. Eddie Banks