Estimation of total groundwater reserves and delineation of weathered/fault zones for aquifer potential: A case study from the Federal District of Brazil

In the Federal District of Brazil, groundwater extraction is challenged by fractured aquifers with difficulty in identification of hydraulic traps and significant uncertainty in the estimation of recharge potential. This study aims to optimize the demarcation of new locations of tubular wells by the aid of geophysical investigation. In the first stage of this study, the total exploitable amount of groundwater were calculated from the information of the physical environment and the existing wells. Second, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) method was carried out on the selected sites – based on their surficial characteristics. The possible hydraulic traps (where groundwater might exist) were identified from the inversion of the resistivity measured by the dipole–dipole array and from the delineation of the resultant conducting zones (including the weathered rocks and fractures). Using this approach, we predicted the position and number of tubular wells required and ranked them according to their potential productivity. The study provides a promising framework for investigating groundwater in fractured aquifers.