Box 4 Use of Well Record Data to Characterize Regional Aquifer Hydraulic Conductivity
A study by Priebe and others (2017) used the Ontario Water Well Information System (well record database) to investigate spatial patterns of hydraulic conductivity. The spatial coverage of hydraulic conductivity (K) measurements for large-scale groundwater investigations is often poor due to the high cost associated with hydraulic testing and the large areas under investigation. Water well records provide a wealth of information that can be used to estimate K from specific capacity measurements that are recorded during well construction. To assess the validity of well construction specific capacity tests, these data were compared to higher quality hydraulic conductivity measurements. Results of the comparisons demonstrate that reconnaissance-level K estimates from specific-capacity tests approximate the ranges and distributions of the high-quality K values (Figure Box 4-1). The study findings indicate that specific capacity data measurements from well record databases can be used with confidence by practitioners seeking to enhance their spatial coverage of K values.
Figure Box 4–1 – The cumulative probability distribution for hydraulic conductivity estimates from specific capacity data recorded on well records (pink symbols) and the high-quality hydraulic conductivity dataset (green symbols). The high-quality hydraulic conductivity dataset was truncated below values of 10–5 m/s so these values are not shown on the chart.