Ground Water

Topic: Safe yield & factors

 Table of Contents

• Ground Water
• Safe Yield
• Important Factors Including
a) Water supply
b) Economics
c) Water quality
d) Water rights
 Ground water
The water contained in the interconnected
pores located below the water table in an
aquifer.
 Safe Yield
• The amount of naturally occuring
groundwater that can be economically and
legally withdrawn from an aquifer on a
sustained basis without impairing the native
ground water quality or creating an
undesireable effect such as environmental
damage.
• It cannot exceed the increase in recharge or
leakage from adjacent strata plus the
reduction in discharge, which is due to the
decline in head caused by pumping
Important factors of Safe yield analysis
 Water quality
• The quality of water that we ingest, as well as
the quality of water in our lakes, streams, rivers
and oceans , is a critical parameter in
determining the overall quality of our lives .
• A quality limitation on safe yield depends upon
the minimum acceptable standard of water
quality which in turn depends upon the used
made by the pumped water.
• Salinity and chemistry of groundwater.
• One basic measure of water quality is a total
dissolved solids(TDS).
 Water Supply
• Excessive groundwater pumping can lead to groundwater
depletion, and overdraft
• Overdraft : when ground water is pumped faster than
recharge, water level drops.
• The water supply to a basin can be limited either by the
physical size of underground basin or by the rate at which
water moves through the basin, from the recharge area to
the withdrawl area.
• Some times streams may act as horizontal wells,as we can
use them to recharge of production wells.
Case Study (Kansas Geological Survey)

Major perennial streams in Kansas: 1961 vs 1994

(Sophocleous, 2000).
• So water supply is a very important factor in
this regard.
• All ground water of economic importance is in
constant movement through a porous rock
stratum, from a place of recharge to a place of
discharge
 Water rights
• Again an important factor in regards of safe
yield.
• Any legal restriction on pumpage would have
to be established before the safe yield could
be determined.
 Economics
• This factor may govern safe yield
• Well abondment.
 Conclusions
Groundwater resources are known to be replenished
by a “recharge”, coming from the infiltration of 
rainfall, water bodies, or snowmelt
we should not abstract from aquifers more than what
nature puts into them; and that less is just fine, or
“safe”.
Groundwater sustainability is defined as the use of
ground water in a manner that can be maintained for
an indefinite time without causing unacceptable
consequences.
Thanks