Continuous monitoring of transient groundwater fluxes using the Finite Volume Point Dilution Method

Groundwater flux is the driving force of solute contaminant dispersion through aquifers. Accurate groundwater flux measurement and monitoring is thus crucial for assessing the fate of contaminants in the saturated zone. Unfortunately, classical measurement such as pumping or slug tests based on the Darcy’s law and hydraulic gradient may lead to cumulated errors and provide no more than a snapshot measurement only representative of a given time. There is a need for a technique able to perform a continuous monitoring of groundwater fluxes, and moreover in aquifer where rapid changes of groundwater fluxes occur such as aquifers influenced by surface water, by nearby pumping or by fast precipitation recharge. Alternative methods, such as point dilution tracer tests to obtain a direct measurement of local groundwater fluxes, are promising
In this study, the Finite Volume Point Dilution Method (FVPDM) was applied to continuously monitor groundwater fluxes of the alluvial aquifer of the River Meuse, in Liège (Belgium). The experimental setup consisted in the monitoring of a transient groundwater fluxes generated by a step pumping test that lasted 40 hours. Two FVPDM were performed simultaneously in two piezometers screened in two different part of the aquifer. Piezometric heads were also monitored in several piezometer located around the pumping well. Next to this original experimental setup, a mathematical solution has been developed to interpret data from FVPDM performed under transient state in order to deduce the continuous evolution of groundwater flux.
The experiment demonstrated the ability of the FVPDM for monitoring transient groundwater fluxes, even if the changes of groundwater flux occurs rapidly. The FVPDM turned out to be very sensitive to small changes in groundwater flux. The FVPDM interpretation also showed that the upper part of the aquifer is affected by slower groundwater fluxes than the lower and coarser part. Furthermore, distinct hydraulic behavior were determined between the upper and lower part of the aquifer. This could not have been revealed by conventional pumping tests using only drawdown data for interpretation. The mathematical solution allowed to determine the groundwater flux at every moment of the test even if the FVPDM had not reached the stabilized phase that usually guarantee its good precision. These results illustrate the great interest of the FVPDM method for monitoring of contaminant fluxes in groundwater if coupled with a real time measurement of contaminant concentration.
One of the main perspective is to perform a long term (several months) monitoring of groundwater fluxes in an aquifer influenced by river stages variations in order to prove the ability of the FVPDM for continuous long term monitoring and better characterize the exchanges between groundwater and surface water.