Tidal Subsurface Analysis (TSA): Using Earth and atmospheric tides to quantify subsurface hydro-geomechanical properties

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Philipp Blum, since 8/2022
• Subject Area: Hydrogeology, Hydrology, Limnology, Urban Water Management, Water Chemistry, Integrated Water Resources Management ; Palaeontology
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 424795466

Groundwater resources underpin ecosystems and human activities, yet their continued global depletion deteriorates water quality and ecology due to baseflow reduction and causes land subsidence and seawater intrusion. Accurate quantification of groundwater flow and storage changes is critical to enable adaptive resource management, for example through assessing potential impacts from over-extraction and determining sustainable yields. This necessitates an increase in knowledge of the spatial distribution of subsurface properties. Current groundwater investigation methods (e.g. pump testing) require high effort and are costly to conduct, restricting the rate and frequency of testing thus resulting in spatially limited outcomes. This project will establish Tidal Subsurface Analysis (TSA) as a novel methodology to quantify subsurface hydro-geomechanical properties such as transmissivity, permeability, specific storage, porosity, compressibility and/or bulk modulus. TSA utilises the groundwater response to the ubiquitous and predictable Earth and atmospheric tides which is contained in existing measurements. TSA will be developed by unifying the theories of existing approaches that have successfully quantified individual subsurface properties using the groundwater response to Earth tides or barometric loading. Next, the influence of geological heterogeneity on properties quantified using TSA will be evaluated using a combination of numerical modelling and field data from locations in the United Kingdom and Australia where the subsurface has been well characterised. Finally, TSA will be validated by comparing each of the quantified hydro-geomechanical properties with values derived from established hydrogeological or geophysical investigation techniques, such as pump testing, geophysical logging or sediment coring. Because it is a passive approach, it will overcome many of the limitations inherent to active hydraulic subsurface investigations. It is anticipated that TSA will shift the paradigm about how groundwater and atmospheric measurements are used and add significant value to monitoring programs, enhancing resource management decisions and improving implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Ehemaliger Antragsteller: Dr. Gabriel Rau, until 8/2022