Abstract:
Analytical well test solutions are a powerful approach to aquifer characterization and the parameterization of comprehensive numerical models. In addition, wellfield drawdown tests, which consist of coordinated pumping and data collection at a suite of monitoring and operating production wells, are of growing significance due to increasing pressures upon groundwater resources and the consequent management and planning requirement for superior hydrogeologic characterization of existing production wellfields. However. few pumping test analysis codes accommodate the multiple extraction wells involved, particularly for more sophisticated analytic aquifer test solutions. We present and demonstrate here a FORTRAN code for analysis of drawdown at a monitor well due to simultaneous variable-rate pumping at multiple independent production wells, which we developed in response to a need to refine an existing numerical, coupled groundwater/surface water resource management model, Spatial and temporal superposition are used to accommodate the typical operational properties of wellfield pumping tests, The software invokes the well-accepted Hantush-Jacob method for semiconfined or 'leaky' aquifers in a forward simulation procedure and effectively assumes homogeneity in applicable aquifer parameters (transmissivity, coefficient of storage, and leakance). Intended for both professionals and students, the code is widely applicable and straightforward to use as written. However, it can be modified with relative ease to use alternative well test solutions and/or formal inverse modeling techniques, or to accommodate spatial hydrogeologic variability. An application to a pumping test conducted in a karst limestone aquifer at the Cross Bar Ranch wellfield in Tampa Bay, Florida, demonstrates the utility of the software. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved