Appendix B

Hydraulic properties and pumping tests of an

aquifer
The important hydraulic properties of a soil or rock are:
(a) the amount of water it can hold in its voids;
(b) the amount that can be drained from it; and
(c) the ease with which the water can flow through it.
These may be expressed as its porosity, specific yield and coefficient of permeability.
These parameters are defined elsewhere (Section 5.1.1). In hydro-geological work,
including water supply, it has been conventional, however, to describe the hydraulic
properties of an aquifer by other, equivalent parameters. For example, permeability is
expressed in practical terms as discharge per unit of time, rather than as velocity of flow.
This hydraulic conductivity is usually designated K rather than k. It is expressed as the
discharge (m3 day 1) through a cross-sectional area of 1 m2 under a hydraulic gradient of
1 in 1.
The ability to permit flow through voids may also be expressed by the aquifers
transmissibility, which is the rate of flow of ground water (m3 day 1 m 1) through a
vertical strip of aquifer 1 m wide extending the full length of the saturated aquifer under a
hydraulic gradient of 1 in 1.
The storage capacity of the aquifer is defined by its coefficient of storage (S). It is the
ratio of the volume of water derived from storage in a vertical column extending through
the full thickness of the aquifer to the corresponding volume of the aquifer, expressed as
a decimal. The water is assumed to be yielded during a reduction in head equivalent to a
fall in water level of 1 m, and the column rests on a base of 1 m2.
While a well is discharging, water is being drawn from the rocks around it to produce a
cone of depression (exhaustion) in the water table, or a cone of pressure relief in
confined water, with a matching cone-shaped depression in the piezometric surface.
Hydraulic gradients are produced radially inwards around the well and induce flow into
it. The dimensions of the cone of depression (Fig. B. 1) formed by a well being pumped
from a depth H below the original water table, in an aquifer of permeability k, are related
to the quantity Q yielded under steady-state flow conditions by the equation

Appendix B 280

Figure B.1 (a) A cone of depression in the water table has been produced by
pumping from the well until steady-state conditions are attained. The
saturated rock below the cone is shown by dots. The other symbols
are defined in the text. (b) The aquifer of thickness d is confined by
an aquiclude above it. Its original piezometric surface has been
depressed around the well, and the diagram shows its form when
steady-state conditions have been attained. (The head at the well has
dropped to a level where part of the aquifer is unsaturated.) The other
symbols are defined in the text.

Appendix B 281
where H, h and R are dimensions of the cone of depression, shown in Figure B.1a, and r
is the radius of the well (In is the conventional symbol for loge). The equation is a useful
approximation if the aquifer is homogeneous, isotropic and of much larger extent than the
cone, and if the slope of the cone is less than 30. It assumes that the well penetrates the
full section of the aquifer. This equation describing what happens in an unconfined
aquifer when a single well is pumped can be used to predict the extent of de-watering of
ground prior to excavation or to laying foundations. The corresponding equation for a
confined aquifer (see Fig. B.1b) is

Conversely, if the gradients of the cone of depression are studied using observation wells
(in Fig. B.2), the permeability k of the aquifer around the pumped well can be
determined. Figure B.2 shows the form of the water table during a pumping test that has
lasted long enough (more than 24 h) for steady-state conditions to be reached, that is,
where the volume of water Q being discharged per day is constant:

The symbols are defined in Figure B.2.

Figure B.2 A pumping test to determine permeability (k) of an unconfined

aquifer has lowered the original water table around the pumped well
to levels Z1 and Z2 in the two observation wells. The relationship
between the permeability of the aquifer and these parameters of the
cone of depression is given in the text.