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GEOS 4430 Lecture Notes: Introduction To Hydrogeology: Dr. T. Brikowski Fall 2012
GEOS 4430 Lecture Notes: Introduction To Hydrogeology: Dr. T. Brikowski Fall 2012
Introduction to Hydrogeology
Dr. T. Brikowski
Fall 2012
1
Why Study Hydrogeology?
Population growth and global warming will lead to severe
freshwater shortages in the near future.
U.S.
West: Emphasis on groundwater.
Water is a crucial problem west of 100o W longitude [the
east side of the Texas panhandle, J. W. Powell, 1875,
quoted in Stegner, 1954].
average U.S. precipitation shows distinct drop-off west
of 100o (Fig. 1)
Situation best summarized by Mark Twain (apocryphal):
[In the West] whiskey is for drinking, water is for
fighting over . . . 1
1
http://www.twainquotes.com/WaterWhiskey.html
2
East: emphasis on surface water management (rivers,
lakes, etc.) and drainage, contamination remediation, and
sea water intrusion. Also seawater intrusion.
World:
world wide water stress (pg. 61) increasing rapidly, causing
much suffering and potential war. See also decadal
summary
Upper-vs-lower basin water usage
similar to western U.S.Colorado River (p. 33) issues. See
also USBR Colo. R. sustainability study
Euphrates River (Fig. 3): Turkey vs. Syria and Iraq.
Drying of Iraq marshes.
Nile River basin (Fig. 4). Egypt vs. Sudan and Ethiopia.
See Nile Basin Initiative
3
Declining snowpack: primarily Himalaya, which supplies
much of India and south Asia (Fig. 5)
4
U.S. Precipitation 2009
5
World Freshwater Stress
7
Nile River Basin
11
Climate Change and Drought
see Global Change Impacts in the United States, [USGCRP,
2009]
Warming predictions:
U.S. average temperature has risen by 1.1C in the past
50 years
expect additional 5-6C warming by 2100 at current CO2
emissions rates [p. 29, USGCRP, 2009]
greatest warming in mid-continent, especially west (
[Colorado River headwaters, p. 29 USGCRP, 2009]
(compare to 1940-2005 observed trends
optimistic models of reduced emissions predict 3-4C
warming
12
will result in over half the year with days warmer than
90F by 2100 in North Texas [p. 34, USGCRP, 2009]
around 120 days over 100F for North Texas by 2100 [p.
90, USGCRP, 2009]
14
Lake Mead, NV
Lake Mead, NV Monthly Water Elevation
1240
Maximum
1220
1200
1160
1140
Drought
1120
1100
Critical Shortage
1080
1060
1940
1945
1950
1955
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
Figure 6: Lake Mead, NV monthly water levels 1937-present. Current levels approaching those experienced in shorter
severe droughts 1955 and 1965. Mandatory rationing below shortage line, AZ handles 94% of the rationing, NV the rest. Mead
15
Las Vegas City Water Intake Tunnel
Figure 7: Las Vegas-Lake Mead water intake tunnel plan. One of two current intakes is at 1,050 ft elev, and may soon
16
Warming-Related Water Stress
17
Unique U.S. Water Stresses
18
Water Trends
19
Water Sources
average water usage in U.S. is 30% groundwater (Fig. 9)
21
Total Water Usage in the U.S., 1950-2005
24
Sources of Consumed Water, Texas, 1974-1993
Figure 12: Water usage categories, Texas, 1974 (left), 1993 (middle) and
2008 (right). Municipal usage (blue in right two figures, green on left) has
grown from 12% in 1974 to 22% in 1993 to 25% in 2002. Concomitantly
irrigation usage has declined from 78% to 68% to 62% respectively. Texas
Water Resources Planning Commission and TWDB.
26
Projected Water Usage by Category, Texas
260
240
220
Gallons/Capita/Day (GPCD)
200
180
160
140
120
100
Tucson, AZ
HOUSTON
RICHARDSON
AUSTIN
EL PASO
FORT WORTH
PLANO
AMARILLO
WACO
SAN ANTONIO
Las Vegas, NV
DALLAS
MIDLAND
Figure 14: 2006 Estimated water usage for Texas cities with population
greater than 95,000. Richardson has the greatest usage, nearly double that
of San Antonio, and higher than Las Vegas. Data from TWDB, see also
Texas Comptroller.
28
Projected Groundwater Supply, Texas
C anadian R
ive
r
HARTLEY MOORE HUTCHINSON ROBERTS HEMPHILL
New Mexico
POTTER
Oklahoma
Te x a s
Te x a s
40 Amarillo
DEAF DONLEY
SMITH RANDALL ARMSTRONG
Pr
27 ai
ri
D
e
o g To w n
F ork Red River
CASTRO SWISHER BRISCOE
PARMER
r
ve
COCHRAN HOCKLEY LUBBOCK CROSBY DICKENS Ri
os
Lubbock az
B
r
YOAKUM TERRY LYNN GARZA Estimated Usable
Aquifer Lifetime
Already Below 30 feet Perennial Stream
Less than 15 years Interstate
16 to 30 years Major Road
31 to 50 years County Boundary
Miles
Co
lo
ad
r
o
Midland R
iv
er
Odessa MIDLAND GLASSCOCK
ECTOR
20
34
Definitions
35
Definitions
36
Definitions (cont.)
Ground Water Hydrology: the study of the origin,
distribution, movement and physical/chemical properties of
ground water. A subset of hydrology, the study of all
terrestrial waters.
38
The Hydrologic Cycle
39
Definitions: Hydrologic Cycle
42
Quantified Hydrologic Cycle
43
Water Balance
44
Groundwater Basics
45
Aquifer Types
47
Aquifer Features
50
Southwest Drought 1998-2010
51
Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone
The most severe nutrient pollution issue in U.S. is Gulf Coast
Dead Zone, with Chesapeake Bay a close second.
53
Other Resources
54
Useful Links
This is intended to be an ever-evolving list of useful links on
the general topic of this note set.
55
Bibliography
56
Tim P. Barnett and David W. Pierce. When will Lake Mead go dry? Water Resour. Res., 44
(W03201), 29 March 2008. doi: 10.1029/2007WR006704. URL http://www.agu.org/
journals/pip/wr/2007WR006704-pip.pdf.
CENR. Integrated Assessment of Hypoxia in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Report, National
Science and Technology Council Committee on Environment and Natural Resources,
Washington, D.C., May 2000. URL http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/products/hypox_
finalfront.pdf.
R. C. Heath. Basic ground-water hydrology. Water Supply Paper 2220, U.S. Geol. Survey,
Denver, CO, 1987. URL http://water.usgs.gov/pubs/wsp/wsp2220/.
IPCC4. Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis, Summary for Policymakers (4th
Climate Assessment Report). Technical report, U.N. Intergov. Panel on Climate Change, 5
February 2007. URL http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf. 18 pp.
Jonathan Overpeck and Bradley Udall. Dry times ahead. Science, 328(5986):16421643, 2010.
doi: 10.1126/science.1186591. URL http://www.sciencemag.org.
Yadu N. Pokhrel, Naota Hanasaki, Pat J-F Yeh, Tomohito J. Yamada, Shinjiro Kanae, and Taikan
Oki. Model estimates of sea-level change due to anthropogenic impacts on terrestrial water
storage. Nature Geosci, advance online publication, May 2012. ISSN 1752-0908. doi:
10.1038/ngeo1476. URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1476.
A. K. Prasad and R. P. Singh. Changes in Himalayan Snow and Glacier Cover Between 1972
and 2000. EOS, 88(33):326, 17 August 2007. doi: 10.1029/2007EO330002.
W. E. Stegner. Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening
of the West. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1954.
57
USGCRP. Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States. Cambridge
University Press, 2009. URL http://www.globalchange.gov/publications/reports/
scientific-assessments/us-impacts. Quadrennial report to U.S. Congress.