estimates of hydraulic conductivities along the russian river using groundwater temperature profiles

Grace W. Su, James Jasperse, Donald Seymour, and Jim Constantz

Contact: Grace Su, 510/495-2338, gwsu@lbl.gov

Research Objectives
Quantifying surface-groundwater exchanges has become an important component of water resources management, resulting from the increase in the conjunctive use of water resources. Reducing uncertainty in models used to select optimal operation management alternatives requires proper identification of the spatial and temporal variations in physical parameters, such as the hydraulic conductivity.

Recently, heat as a tracer has been demonstrated to be a robust method for quantifying surface-groundwater exchanges. Groundwater temperatures and water levels are routinely monitored in observation wells near streams, but temperature data are generally considered a water-quality parameter and are not used as an environmental tracer to characterize hydraulic parameters. The objective of this study is to quantify the spatial and temporal variations of the alluvial aquifer hydraulic conductivites along the middle reaches of the Russian River in Sonoma County, California, by analyzing groundwater temperature profiles and water levels measured in six observation wells.

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