Sustainable Groundwater Extraction and Infrastructure Design

Sustainable Groundwater Extraction and Infrastructure Design 1
Sustainable Groundwater Extraction and Infrastructure Design
by Student’s Name
Course Name
Professor’s Name
University Name
City, State
Date

Sustainable Groundwater Extraction and Infrastructure Design 2
Table of Contents
ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................................4
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................5
Background Information..............................................................................................................................5
Problem Statement.................................................................................................................................6
Justification..............................................................................................................................................7
Aims and Objectives................................................................................................................................7
Scope Description....................................................................................................................................8
LITERATURE REVIEW....................................................................................................................................9
Aquifer System........................................................................................................................................9
Groundwater: Extraction and Sustainability..........................................................................................11
Groundwater Recharge.........................................................................................................................14
Sustainable Groundwater Extraction.....................................................................................................15
Jurisdiction Legislative, Policy and Management Approaches...............................................................17
Australian Capital Territory................................................................................................................17
South Australia..................................................................................................................................17
Victoria..............................................................................................................................................18
MATERIALS AND METHODS...................................................................................................................18
Area of the Study...............................................................................................................................18
Data and Information of the Area......................................................................................................19
Water Parameters.............................................................................................................................20
Depth Calculation..............................................................................................................................21
WATER QUALITY TESTS..........................................................................................................................22
Statistical Methods............................................................................................................................22
Overlay and Index Methods...............................................................................................................22
Mathematical Models............................................................................................................................22
Nitrate in Groundwater.........................................................................................................................23
Tests on Hydraulic Head........................................................................................................................24
Tests on Hydraulic Gradient..................................................................................................................24
Porosity.................................................................................................................................................25

Sustainable Groundwater Extraction and Infrastructure Design 3
Hydraulic Conductivity...........................................................................................................................25
Permeability..........................................................................................................................................25
Darcy’s Law............................................................................................................................................26
Testing for Iron......................................................................................................................................27
Analyzing Conductivity..........................................................................................................................27
DESIGN AND INSTALLATION PROCEDURE..............................................................................................28
Borehole Design................................................................................................................................28
Design Materials................................................................................................................................28
Structure of the Borehole......................................................................................................................29
Borehole Depth.................................................................................................................................31
Borehole Diameter............................................................................................................................31
Completion of Borehole.....................................................................................................................31
Borehole Drilling................................................................................................................................31
Design Process of Borehole...............................................................................................................32
RESULTS.....................................................................................................................................................33
SUSTAINABLE WAY TO IMPROVE QUALITY OF WATER..........................................................................34
Artificial Recharge..............................................................................................................................34
Surface Method.................................................................................................................................35
Sub Surface Method..........................................................................................................................35
Infiltration..........................................................................................................................................35
STAKEHOLDERS ENGAGEMENT.................................................................................................................36
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................39
RECOMMENDATIONS................................................................................................................................39
BUDGET.....................................................................................................................................................40
References.................................................................................................................................................43
ABSTRACT

Sustainable Groundwater Extraction and Infrastructure Design 4
Groundwater is water found within soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock
formations under the earth surface at variable depths. It is notable that ground water sustains life
substantially in the world. Ground water has also been in most cases extracted for domestic use
including drinking and cooking especially in Australia as it is a dry country. With the increasing
population in Australia, there is a need to come up with ways to sustain the continuously
growing demand for clean water consumption. This essentially includes identifying aquifers that
can yield enough water, drilling, piping, pumping and storage. Ground water contains at least
twenty percent of fresh water in the whole world. In developed countries like Australia, most
people use and prefer ground water to surface water for drinking as surface water in most cases
is more exposed to pollution. Groundwater in Australia is derived from several aquifers
including, Gnangara mound and the great artesian basin.

Sustainable Groundwater Extraction and Infrastructure Design 5
INTRODUCTION
Background Information
Groundwater is the water which is below the earth surface, and a fifth of the water is
considered as pure. The project aims to exploit the groundwater sustainably through the drilling
of the borehole for drinking. Since there is an expected future demand for water with the rapid
rise in population, the project, therefore, explores the future sustainable solutions to the problem
at hand which revolves around the extraction of groundwater from the aquifers. There are a
variety of technical duties which will be involved during the selection of site for the extraction of
water and this will be in regards to the evaluation of water properties and groundwater profiling.
However, the chosen region for drilling of the boreholes is Victoria State Australia. There are
also certain specific goals of the project, and they include, quality assessment of the
groundwater, selection of the site of extracting bore water and gathering of geological and
hydrological information of the supply area.
The project is divided into different sections such as the literature review chapter which
illustrates the views and experiences of a variety of scholars on the topic of discussion that
sustainable groundwater extraction and infrastructure design. The section also highlights the
future perspectives on the issue of the project. The other section is on the methodology. Under
the methodology, the tests to be carried out for quality checks of the groundwater have been
discussed. The chapter also describes the design process and quality tests of the boreholes which
have been explained in the Australian standards. Some of the quality tests discussed include
onsite test, analysis of conductivity and physical inspection. The next chapter is on results and
discussion where the topic has been discussed immensely and how the water is extracted from a

Sustainable Groundwater Extraction and Infrastructure Design 6
confined and unconfined aquifer. The project then concludes by providing an overview of the
subject of discussion including the recommendations on sustainable groundwater extraction and
future design.
Problem Statement
Nevertheless, Extraction of ground water has its fair share of problems when used
extensively. Such problems include; dropping in level of the water table. This may in turn cause
salinity intrusion as noted is other countries like India. Similarly, a drop in the level of the
ground water may cause subsidence. These are crater-like forms in the earth surface arising from
collapse of the ground after so much water is pumped from beneath it. Additionally, just like
surface water, ground water also gets polluted in some few cases. Salt water intrusion is among
the ways through which ground water may be polluted. Another is improper disposal of wastes
such as industrial and household chemicals which seep into the ground and may pollute aquifers
beneath the ground. As such, care is taken to ensure that the aquifers identified for extraction are
not polluted and safe for consumption.
Despite the problems associated with the identification and extraction of ground water,
the rising population’s demand for its consumption overweighs the technicalities involved.
Coupled with the fact that subsidence only occurs in extreme cases, ground water remains the
main source of drinking water the world over. Nevertheless, Australia being a mostly dry region,
ground water is used extensively. According to NASA findings, Gnangara Mound aquifer and
the great artesian basin – the major sources of ground water in have been decreasing in water
volume. This has consequentially caused the need to drill boreholes and wells further under the
ground. This has also in turn caused the cost of drilling boreholes to increase significantly. The

Sustainable Groundwater Extraction and Infrastructure Design 7
advantage of using ground water in countries such as Australia overweighs its disadvantages and
is thus recommended greatly(Capozza , De Carli and Zarrella 2012).
Justification
Ground water usage provides a round-the-clock availability of water in all seasons. Apart
from this, the use of ground water has many advantages including and not limited to the
following;
First, ground water is not easily polluted as it is not exposed to impurities as surface
water. Its notable also that water gets purified with time in the ground through decantation and
dissipation which may take over one million years. Similarly, ground water contains minerals
that are essential for body growth and development as well as for agricultural use. Additionally,
ground water is easily found in several regions including arid and semi-arid areas. To add on to
that, there are little or no hazards presented if drilling is done appropriately. The water
temperature also tends to remain stable through the year, that is, it stays warm in winter and stays
cool during summer. Apart from these, there is need to come up with several other ways of
satisfying demand for water and this is one way to doing that (Mueller et al. 2010).
Aims and Objectives
This project aims at finding future sustainable solutions to effective drilling of
underground water in order to sustain the expected growing population. The project tries to
identify aquifers that are fast accessible, nearer to ground level and with adequate reservation of
water. By the end of this project we shall be able to analyze water properties essential for
consumption and at the same time do ground water profiling for the proposed sites. This helps in
doing quality assessment of the ground water in question. With the cost of drilling boreholes

Sustainable Groundwater Extraction and Infrastructure Design 8
being significantly high in the current days, we intend to use cheaper and most effective ways of
extraction in order to reduce the final cost of consuming water.
Scope Description
In this project one is going to get all necessary hydrological and geological information in
order to come up with a work plan complete with locations. These shall include bores in places
of high water concentration and its relativity to high demand areas in order to limit long distance
distribution. Similarly, we shall come up with an infrastructure design that can be accommodated
by our budget. We also intend to come up with a design that is acceptable to the consumer while
at the same time working in line with the Australian guidelines and standards on bore-hole
drilling and establishment. The intention is to ensure that all housing units are connected to fresh
water through proper piping plan and set up (El Haggar 2010).