Assessment of the heterogeneity of hydraulic properties in gravelly outwash plains: a regionally scaled sedimentological analysis in the Munich gravel plain, Germany

The favorable overall conditions for the utilization of groundwater in fluvioglacial aquifers are impacted by significant heterogeneity in the hydraulic conductivity, which is related to small-scale facies changes. Knowledge of the spatial distribution of hydraulically relevant hydrofacies types (HF...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Hydrogeology journal Vol. 28; no. 8; pp. 2657 - 2674
Main Authors:	Theel, Markus, Huggenberger, Peter, Zosseder, Kai
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-12-2020 Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:	Aquatic Pollution Aquifers Braided rivers Connectors Couplings Distribution Dredging Earth and Environmental Science Earth Sciences Excavation Geology Geophysics/Geodesy Glacial drift Gravel Gravel pits Groundwater Heterogeneity Hydraulic conductivity Hydraulic properties Hydraulics Hydrogeology Hydrology/Water Resources Outwash Permeability Pits Plumes Properties Pumping Pumping tests Sediment Sediment deposits Sedimentary facies Spatial distribution Trends Waste Water Technology Water Management Water Pollution Control Water Quality/Water Pollution Germany Heterogeneity Unconsolidated sediments Scale effects Equipment/field techniques Hydraulic properties
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Summary:	The favorable overall conditions for the utilization of groundwater in fluvioglacial aquifers are impacted by significant heterogeneity in the hydraulic conductivity, which is related to small-scale facies changes. Knowledge of the spatial distribution of hydraulically relevant hydrofacies types (HF-types), derived by sedimentological analysis, helps to determine the hydraulic conductivity distribution and thus contribute to understanding the hydraulic dynamics in fluvioglacial aquifers. In particular, the HF-type “open framework gravel (OW)”, which occurs with the HF-type “bimodal gravel (BM)” in BM/OW couplings, has an intrinsically high hydraulic conductivity and significantly impacts hydrogeological challenges such as planning excavation-pit drainage or the prognosis of plumes. The present study investigates the properties and spatial occurrence of HF-types in fluvioglacial deposits at regional scale to derive spatial distribution trends of HF-types, by analyzing 12 gravel pits in the Munich gravel plain (southern Germany) as analogues for outwash plains. The results are compared to the reevaluation of 542 pumping tests. Analysis of the HF-types and the pumping test data shows similar small-scale heterogeneities of the hydraulic conductivity, superimposing large-scale trends. High-permeability BM/OW couples and their dependence on recognizable discharge types in the sedimentary deposits explain sharp-bounded small-scale heterogeneities in the hydraulic conductivity distribution from 9.1 × 10 −3 to 2.2 × 10 −4 m/s. It is also shown that high values of hydraulic conductivity can be interpolated on shorter distance compared to lower values. While the results of the HF-analysis can be transferred to other fluvioglacial settings (e.g. braided rivers), regional trends must be examined with respect to the surrounding topography.
ISSN:	1431-2174 1435-0157
DOI:	10.1007/s10040-020-02205-y