Jarosław Kania

Classification of Groundwater Quality Based on Variability of Hydrogeochemical Environment

Groundwater quality is becoming an important issue in many parts of the world. The status of groundwater quality in the given groundwater system can be addressed through quantitative analysis of its hydrogeochemical field in temporal and spatial domain. A quantitative, multi-stage classification of groundwater quality adopted in Poland is presented and compared with the approach recommended by EU. It helps to guard pristine water quality and to detect early stages of deterioration of groundwater quality, thus allowing timely measures to achieve trend reversals.

ON CONCEPTUAL AND NUMERICAL MODELING OF FLOW AND TRANSPORT IN GROUNDWATER WITH THE AID OF TRACERS: A CASE STUDY

Transport models based on calibrated flow models may often yield wrong predictions unless recalibrated with the aid of environmental tracers because migration velocity depends on the ratio of hydraulic conductivity to porosity whereas flow rates depend on transmissivity. An environmental tracer (SF6) was used to improve calibration of transport and flow models in a sandy aquifer. Simulated and measured 3 H contents showed that further improvement of the conceptual model and recalibration of flow and migration models are needed for some parts of the aquifer. Residence time distributions obtained from lumped-parameter and numerical models are shown to serve for a better understanding of the groundwater system.