Learning outcomes of the course unit
The course will transmit to the students the theoretical and technical tools useful for the comprehension of the hydrological processes concerning groundwater and the rational use of the groundwater resources.
Course contents summary
Mathematical models of groundwater. Recalls and supplements of hydraulics of porous media: porosity, conductivity of saturated porous media, Darcy law, characteristic curve for unsaturated media, conductivity of unsaturated porous media, continuity equation, specific storativity, Laplace equation and its solutions, 2D confined and unconfined aquifers, storativity, confined and unconfined wells, pumping tests and their interpretation. Numerical methods for the solution of the equations: finite differences and finite elements methods. Selection of space and time scales and boundary conditions. Interactions between surface network and groundwater.
Pollutant transport. Pollutant fluxes by: advection, diffusion, dispersion. Recalls on the reactions of precipitation/solution, absorption, microbiologic transformation, molecular diffusion and mechanical dispersion. Continuity equations in water and soil. Formal mathematical model of transport: coupled and uncoupled problems. Analytical solution in simple conditions. Numerical solution of the transport equations. Characterization of polluted sites. Inverse problems in pollution transport. Main techniques for containing pollution and restoring aquifers.
Treatment of the natural heterogeneity of aquifers. Recalls and supplements of theory of stochastical processes. Kreaging process for the estimate of regional variables. Stochastic theory of pollutant transport in heterogeneous aquifers. Main results for uniform (in the average) flow and flow with recharge.
Butera I. & Tanda M. G.: Dispense del Corso di Idrologia Sotterranea per gli allievi di Ingegneria per l’Ambiente ed il Territorio, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile dell’Università di Parma.
De Marsily G. : Quantitative Hydrogeology – Groundwater Hydrology for Engineers, Academic Press, Inc., 1986.
Domenico P.A. & F. W. Schwartz: Physical and Chemical Hydrogeology, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998.
Bear J. e A. Verruijt: Modeling Groundwater Flow and Pollution, D. Reidel Pub. Company, 1998.
Canter L. W., Knox R.C., Rasmussen, Spizzichino, Ground Water Pollution Control, Lewis Pub., 1985.
Also numerical practicals with computers on the following topics: Identification of the hydraulic parameters by means of the Kreaging process in a regional aquifer; interpretation of pumping tests in unsteady condition; educational applications of mathematical modeling of regional aquifers.