ASCE standard helps estimate hydraulic properties of groundwater systems
April 8, 2020
By CCE
The fifth in a series, it is intended for environmental and water resources engineers.
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has introduced ANSI/ASCE/EWRI 70-19, Estimation of Aquifer Hydraulic Properties by Inverse Numerical Modeling of Aquifer Pumping, the fifth in a series of standards seeking to enhance the probabilistic and empirical characterization of saturated hydraulic conductivity, a key parameter for groundwater.
The standard provides guidelines for estimating the hydraulic properties of a groundwater system by inverse numerical modelling of aquifer pumping tests. It is suitable for situations where inverse methods based on analytical solutions for aquifer response to pumping are not applicable.
The standard addresses using a numerical groundwater flow model to simulate an aquifer pumping test and to estimate aquifer hydraulic properties. The methodology is based on minimizing residual error between observed and simulated heads by adjusting (i.e. calibrating) values of the pertinent aquifer hydraulic properties, e.g. transmissivity, storativity and leakance, such that there is a close match between the observed and simulated values.
This standard is intended for environmental engineers, water resources engineers and any professionals who use hydraulics in engineering.
