A Regional Scale Hydrostratigraphy Generated from Geophysical Data of Varying Age, Type, and Quality

In the present study, we show how persistent management and collection of hydrological and geophysical data at a national scale can be combined with innovative analysis methods to generate decision support tools for groundwater and surface water managers. This is exemplified by setting up a regional scale groundwater model in an area with geophysical data of varying age, type, and quality. The structure for the regional model is derived from a newly developed resistivity clay-fraction cluster analysis. This modelling strategy can be used in combination with local detailed geological modelling thus utilizing the detailed expertise locally, while securing a cost-effective (price vs. performance) solution to the numerical simulations of the regional scale water balance. In this way we avoid unwanted boundary effects on the local model simulations due to the presence of artificial numerical boundaries located proximate to the areas of interest. In this application, it is particularly important that boundary conditions are remote, due to the presence of a dense network of buried valley structures. Simulated impacts of groundwater abstraction from two existing well-fields spread through the valley system far beyond the local focus areas of the study.