Groundwater Sustainability in Fractured Rock Aquifers

Abstract

This chapter introduces concepts associated with fluid flow, exploitation, and sustainability of fractured rock aquifers. It emphasizes discerning how fractured rock aquifers respond to anthropogenic and climatic influences differently from aquifers comprising unfractured porous media. The chapter first discusses the complexity of fractured rock aquifers, followed by numerical modeling exercises to illustrate key concepts relevant to aquifer sustainability. These concepts provide water resource managers with additional insight into the sustainability of groundwater systems in fractured rock and tools for improved assessment of exploitable groundwater resources in fractured rock aquifers. The chapter then presents some simple studies to highlight how water levels change when aquifers are parameterized as equivalent porous media (EPM) using fracture porosity and unsaturated zone properties and unfractured porous media using host rock porosity and unsaturated zone properties.