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Hydraulic parameter estimation and numerical modeling of Hawaiian aquifers

Understanding and assessment of ground-water flow and chemical transport are hindered by the lack of accurate subsurface characteristics, such as storage properties and hydraulic conductivity, which are needed for successful numerical modeling. Ocean tides, large swell events and aquifer tests from central Maui offer a variety of data sets and different techniques (analytical and numerical) to estimate and compare hydraulic parameters. Besides the traditional aquifer tests, estimation techniques that yield hydraulic conductivity using step drawdown tests and specific capacity are investigated. Ocean tides and swell events provide information over a greater length scale at a reduced logistic effort. Furthermore, the effect of valley-fill barriers between aquifers is analyzed using aquifer test data. The collected water level at several observation wells is used to calibrate a localized numerical flow model.


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