3/14/2022

Physiography of
Ground Water

DR MUHAMMAD ARSHAD

 Habitats and hydrologic cycle

 Movement through
 soil and
 ground water

 Wetlands

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Introduction
 Aquatic habitat
 Geology and the hydrologic cycle
 Or the way water moves through the
environment
 Hydrodynamics: temporal and spatial
variations in movement and distribution of
water.
 A variety of temporal & spatial scale:
organism or process of interest
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Scale - Example
 Microbes can be influenced by proximity to
a grain of sand but ecosystem processes
dominated by the microbes can be altered
by watershed.

 Change in small-scale microbial world can

occur in hours but for ecosystem, it may
take decades to millions of years.
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Water cycle

 Water movement: precipitation in

combination with factors that
influence return of water to the
atmosphere, dictates how much
water enters to aquatic systems.

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Water: entry and exits

 Precipitation
 Evaporation
 Transpiration
 Evapotranspiration
 Infiltration (flows down into & stored as
moisture)
 Percolation (entry to ground water)
 Surface flow - runoff
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General trends
 Runoff -  temperature – potential
evapotranspiration is high.

 Low temperature & precipitation  polar

regions

 Wetlands, lakes and streams  moderate

amount of precipitation
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Can human activities affect

precipitation rates and
hydrological cycle? If yes,
then how?

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Movement through Soil and

Groundwater
 Sheet flow: flow across the surface of soil
 Infiltration: flow down into porous soils
 Unsaturated or Vadose zone: the dry or
moist sediments below the surface soil layers
0 – 100 m
 Capillary fringe: the area where groundwater
is drawn up into pores or spaces in the
sediment by capillary action. (1m or less
above water table)
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Movement through Soil and

Groundwater
 Water table: the top of region where
virtually all of the pore space is filled with
groundwater.
 Groundwater habitat: below the water table
 Aquifer: a continuous groundwater system
 Hyporheic zone: the dynamic zone of
transition where both surface and
groundwater have influences.
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Hyporheic zone
 Hyporheic zone: a transition habitat –
ecotone.

 There is a change between groundwater

and surface water organisms

 Generally this zone is present between

groundwater and wetlands, streams, or
lakes.
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Why the study of groundwater flows

and processes important in studying
aquatic ecosystems?

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Soil characteristics
 Soil texture and composition: sand, silt,
clay, gravels etc.
 Impermeable layers of shale & granite  don't
allow water to flow deeper.
 Very fine clays or with high organic mater  rate
of percolation will be very slow.
 Infiltration capacity partially determines the
proportion of surface water into aquifer.
 The rate at which water percolates into an
aquifer is refereed as the rate of recharge.
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Representative Particle Sizes and Hydraulic

Conductivity of Various Aquifer Materials
Material Particle size Hydraulic
(mm) conductivity
(m d-1)
Clay 0.004 0.0002

Silt 0.004 - 0.062 0.08

Coarse sand 0.5 - 1.0 45

Coarse gravel 16 - 32 150

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Importance of infiltration
 Infiltration rate  sewage sludge
application to croplands

 Determining sewage application rates

 Once water entered to groundwater,

permeability determines the potential rate
of flow – Hydraulic conductivity.
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Hydraulic conductivity
 Variable and dependent on geology

 Water will flow slowly in fine sediments

and rapidly where large channels exist –
limestone aquifers.

 Partially dependent on Reynolds number

if viscosity is high, flow will be slow – Re
will be small.
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Water moves through groundwater and across the

surface of the land in the hydrologic cycle 20

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Darcy’s law
 It can express the rate at which water
moves through aquifers.

 “The flow rate in porous materials

increases with increased pressure and
decreases with longer flow paths”.

 This law mathematically describes the flow

of groundwater and infiltration through the
Vadose zone.
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Porosity
 Amount of water held in sediment is given
by its porosity, or the volume fraction of
pores and/or fractures.
 Higher the porosity  higher will be the flow
 High porosity sediments may have a low HC
when the large proportion of sediments have
dead ends.
 Carbohydrates excreted by microbes 
high proportion of water but very little flow –
viscosity
 Uneven distribution of pores. 22

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Hydraulic head
 The difference in elevation between the
two sites.

 Direction and velocity of groundwater flow

 From higher to lower

 Releasing tracer at the upper site and

monitoring its appearance at the lower site
can indicate water velocity. 23

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Sampling subsurface waters

 Vadose region  technically demanding

 Lysimeters with vacuum

 Wells  but can cover only a small part of

a habitat – shallow, temporary wells
 Deeper sampling  drilling machinery
 Packing required to avoid interference – Bentonite
: inert and swells when wetted
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Some equipment used for sampling

soil water and groundwater

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Groundwater habitats

 Homogenous – even distribution of

permeable substrata such as sand, clay,
or gravel

 Heterogeneous – aquifers with large rocks

embedded in fine sediments or with
patches of low hydraulic conductivity
materials
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Karst
 Groundwater habitat found in limestone
regions with rough land surface – termed
as karst topographies.
 Important in assessing the human impacts
on groundwater
 Large channels – dissolve limestone
 If water subsides, caves are left.
 Pool and streams in limestone caves –
geological formations
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Wetlands
 A wetland is an area of land whose soil is
saturated with moisture either permanently or
seasonally.
 Such areas may also be covered partially or
completely by shallow pools of water.
 Wetlands include swamps, marshes, and
bogs, among others.
 The water found in wetlands can be saltwater,
freshwater, or brackish.
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Wetlands
 Crucial habitats for plants and animals
 Ecosystem services
 Flood control
 Improvement of water quality
 Wastewater treatment
 Natural sources of methane to the
atmosphere – regulation of climate
 Sediments preserve a long-term record of
environmental conditions
 Bogs provide peat moss for gardening. 29

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Wetlands
 One of the problems with studying and
managing wetlands is defining them.
 What is wetland versus terrestrial habitat?
 Type of plant may help;
 Hydrophytes – water-loving plants
 Hydric soils – soils with constant inundation, particularly
anaerobic conditions.
 No ecologically sound definition to-date as
wetland types are very diverse.
 Sometimes, wetlands are considered as
useless land & wasted. 30

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Wetland classification
 Geomorphology, hydrology, climate,
nutrient input, and vegetation

 Geomorphic classification; riverine,

depressional, coastal and peat-land

 Hydrologic regimes of wetlands – can be

highly variable or fairly constant.
 Wetland ecology influenced most
 Permanence, predictability, and seasonality
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Wetland
 Sources of water are;
 Precipitation
 Surface waters

 Groundwater

 High hydrological throughput – Minerotrophic

 Low hydrological throughput – Ombrotrophic
 Nutrient input – eutrophic or oligotrophic
 Salinity
 pH and water chemistry
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Wetlands of Pakistan
Obligation of Convention on
Biological Diversity

Acknowledgments to Mr.Imran
Hayder

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Wetlands in Pakistan
 Pakistan possesses a great variety of
wetlands distributed throughout the
country.
 In total, 220 Wetlands are categorized as
Significant Wetlands which include
 46 Protected Wetlands (1,479,794 ha);
 further designated as, 7 National Parks (128,563
ha),
 25 Wildlife Sanctuaries (1,213,784 ha),

 10 Game Reserves (137,447 ha);

 which also include 16 Ramsar Sites.

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Fig . Distribution of Significant Wetlands

of Pakistan

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Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

 CBD is an international legally-binding

treaty with three main goals:
 conservation of biodiversity;
 sustainable use of biodiversity;

 fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from

the use of genetic resources.

 Its overall objective is to encourage actions

which will lead to a sustainable future.

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Facts
 The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was
opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de
Janeiro on 5 June 1992 and entered into force on
29 December 1993.
 To date, there are 193 Parties
 Components of biodiversity are all the various
forms of life on Earth including ecosystems,
animals, plants, fungi, microorganisms, and genetic
diversity.
 With its three objectives, the CBD is often seen as
the key international instrument for sustainable
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Steps
 Federal Biodiversity Steering
Committee

 Provincial Steering Committees

 Biodiversity Working Group

 Biodiversity Secretariat
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Goal
 Immediate - within 1 year (at low cost)

 Short term - within 5 years

 Long term - within 10 years

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