Geology 929
Benchmark Papers in “Groundwater Flow Processes” Seminar
Fall 2007
This semester, we will read some of the important papers published during the 20th
century that will be included in the IAHS Benchmark Papers volume Groundwater Flow
Processes. The first two volumes in the series (on streamflow generation and on
evaporation) have already been published; the groundwater volume will be published
next year. The papers I have selected for our seminar are listed below. Complete
reference citations follow. All of the papers for our seminar are available for download
from the course website:
(http://www.geology.wisc.edu/~andy/g929/G929_Homepage.htm).
I will lead the discussion of the first paper in Week 1. There are a total of 16 papers
remaining for 11 weeks. Of these, 6 papers are stand alone papers and 10 papers are
discussed in weeks when we will consider 2 papers together. There are 8 students in the
seminar; each student will lead discussions of 2 papers. Details on the process of
matching students with papers will be sent out via email.
Schedule
Week 0 – organization by email
Week 1 (Sept. 10) Meinzer (1938, Paper 1)- MPA
Week 2 (Sept. 17) Theis (1935, Paper 2) and Theis (1940, Paper 16)
Week 3 (Sept. 24) Neuman and Witherspoon (1972, Paper 12)
Week 4 (Oct. 1) Neuzil (1986, Paper 13)
Week 5 (Oct. 8) Back (1960, Paper 17) and Toth (1963, Paper 18)
Week 6 (Oct. 15) Kohout (1960, Paper 20) and Johannes (1980, Paper 21)
Week 7 (Oct. 22) Meyboom excerpt (1966, Paper 22) and Winter (1978, Paper 23)
Week 8 (Oct. 29) GSA week – no seminar this week
Week 9 (Nov. 5) Baedecker and Back (1979, Paper 27)
Week 10 (Nov. 12) Wilson et al. (1983, Papers 28)
Week 11 (Nov. 19)) MacFarlane et al. (1983, Paper 29)
Week 12 (Nov. 26) Schwille (1985. Paper 30)
Week 13 (Dec. 3) Slichter (1905, Paper 31) and Skibitzke and Robinson (1963, Paper 32)
Week 14 (Dec 10) Summary Block exercise – we will meet in cyberspace via email
Summary Block activity during Week 14. The discussion leader for each paper will
identify one or more papers that were published in 2007 in the journal Ground Water that
use or extend the concepts discussed in the benchmark paper. So, for example, for Paper
1, I would seek papers published in Ground Water during 2007 that use or extend
Meinzer’s ideas about storage and compressible aquifers. The discussion leader then
prepares a one page summary (single spaced) illustrating how the 2007 paper(s) build(s)
on the benchmark paper. Each student is in charge of two papers and hence will prepare
two summaries. The summaries should be sent as attached doc files to all participants in
the seminar during Week 14.
Benchmark Papers in “Groundwater Flow Processes”
(number of citations during the period 1970- Jan. 2007 reported by ISI Web of
Knowledge are given in red)
Establishing Fundamentals
1. Meinzer (1928) 28
2. Theis (1935) 561
3. Jacob (1940) 43
4. Hubbert (1940) >270
5. Barenblatt, Zheltov and Kochina (1960) (translated) >295
6. Bredehoeft (1967) 113
7. Poland and Davis (1969)* (excerpt) >60
Determining parameters/variables
8. Hantush (1960) >130
9. Stallman (1965) 43
10. Cooper, Bredehoeft, Papadopulos (1967) 185
11. Neuman (1972) with Supplementary Comments (Neuman 1973) 155
12. Neuman and Witherspoon (1972)* 40
13. Neuzil (1986)* 125
Parameter Uncertainty
14. Freeze (1975) 439
15. Marsily et al. (1984) 41
Flow System Analysis
16. Theis (1940) 38
17. Back (1960) 20
18. Toth (1963)* 268
19. Freeze and Witherspoon (1967) >150
Interaction with surface water
20. Kohout (1960) 49
21. Johannes (1980) 137
22. Meyboom (1966) (excerpt) 71
23. Winter (1978) 72
24. Lapham (1989) (excerpt) 34
25. Harvey and Bencala (1993) 149
Transport Processes
26. Konikow and Bredehoeft (1974) 57
27. Baedecker and Back (1979) 85
28. Wilson, McNabb, Balkwill, Ghiorse (1983) 177
29. MacFarlane, Cherry, Gillham, Sudicky (1983) 107
30. Schwille (1985) (the later book is >236)
Dispersion and Heterogeneity
31. Slichter (1905) (excerpt) >15
32. Skibitzke and Robinson (1963) 11
33. Sudicky (1986) 507
34. Dagan (1987) >230
35. Haggerty and Gorelick (1995) 121
*Meinzer Award Papers
Citations for Benchmark Papers
Back. W. 1960. Origin of hydrochemical facies of ground water in the Atlantic Coastal
Plain, 21st International Geological Congress, Copenhagen. Report, Part 1: 87-95.
Baedecker, Mary Jo and Back, William, 1979. Hydrogeological processes and chemical
reactions at a landfill, Ground Water 17(5): 429-437.
Barenblatt, G.I., Iu.P. Zheltov, and I.N. Kochina, 1960. Basic concepts in the theory of
seepage of homogeneous liquids in fissured rocks (strata), Journal of Applied
Mathematics 24(5): 1286-1303. (This journal is a translation of the journal PMM,
Prikladnaya Matematika/Mekanika, published by the Russian Academy of Sciences; this
article appeared in PMM 24(5): 852-864).
Bredehoeft, J.D., 1967. Response of well-aquifer systems to earth tides. Journal of
Geophysical Research 72(12), 3075-3087.
Cooper, H.H., Bredehoeft, J.D., and Papadopulos, I.S., 1967. Response of a finite
diameter well to an instantaneous charge of water: Water Resources Research 3, 263269.
Dagan, G., 1987. Theory of solute transport by groundwater. Annual Reviews of Fluid
Mechanics 19: 183-215.
Freeze R.A., 1975, Stochastic-conceptual analysis of one-dmensional analysis of
groundwater flow in nonuniform homogeneous media, Water Resources Research 11(5):
725-741.
Freeze, R.A., and Witherspoon, P.A., 1967. Theoretical analysis of regional ground-water
flow. II, Effect of water table configuration and subsurface permeability variations:
Water Resources Res., v.3, p 623-634.
Haggerty, R. and S.M. Gorelick, 1995. Multiple-rate mass-transfer for modeling diffusion
and surface-reactions in media with pore-scale heterogeneity. Water Resources Research
31 (10): 2383-2400.
Hantush, M.M, 1960. Modification of the theory of leaky aquifers. Journal of
Geophysical Research 65: 3713-3725.
Harvey, J.W. and K. E. Bencala 1993. The effect of streambed topography on surfacesubsurface water exchange in mountain catchments, Water Resources Research 29(1):
89-98.
Hubbert, M.K., 1940. The Theory of Ground-Water Motion, Journal of Geology 48,
785-819.
Jacob, C.E., 1940. On the flow of water in an elastic artesian aquifer. Transactions of
the American Geophysical Union 21: 574-586.
Johannes, R.E. 1980. The ecological significance of the submarine discharge of
groundwater. Marine Ecology Progress Series 3: 365-373.
Kohout, F.A., 1960. Cyclic flow of saltwater in the Biscayne aquifer of southeastern
Florida, Journal of Geophysical Research 65(7), 2133-2141.
Konikow, L.F. and J.D. Bredehoeft, 1974. Modeling flow and chemical quality changes
in an irrigated strea-aquifer system. Water Resources Research 10(3): 546-562.
Lapham, W.W., 1989. Use of temperature profiles beneath streams to determine rates of
vertical ground-water flow and vertical hydraulic conductivity. U.S. Geological Survey
Water-Supply Paper 2337: 35.
MacFarlane, D.S., Cherry, J.A., Gillham, R.W., and Sudicky, E. A., 1983. Migration of
contaminants in groundwater at a landfill: a case study, 1, Groundwater flow and plume
delineation. Journal of Hydrology 63(1/2): 1-29.
Marsily, G. de., C. Lavedan, M. Boucher, G. Fasanino, 1984. Interpretation of
interference tests in a well field using geostatistical techniques to fit the permeability
distribution in a reservoir model. In: Geostatistics for Natural Resources
Characterization (G. Verly, M. David, A.G. Journel, and A. Marechal, editors), NATO
ASI (Advanced Science Institutes) Series, Series C, Volume 122, Part 2, D. Reidel Publ.
Co. Dordrecht, Holland: 831-849.
Meinzer, O.E., 1928. Compressibility and elasticity of artesian aquifers, Economic
Geology 23, 263-291.
Meyboom, P., 1966. Unsteady groundwater flow near a willow ring in hummocky
moraine, Journal of Hydrology 4: 38-62.
Neuman, S.P., 1972. Theory of flow in unconfined aquifers considering delayed
response of the water table, Water Resources Research 8(4), 1031-1045. [with Neuman,
S.P., 1972, Supplementary Comments, Water Resources Research 9(4), 1102-1103]
Neuman, S.P. and Witherspoon, P.A., 1972. Field determination of the hydraulic
properties of leaky multiple-aquifer systems: Water Resources Research 8(5): 1284-1298.
Neuzil, Christopher E., 1986. Ground water flow in low-permeability environments.
Water Resources Research 22 (8): 1163-1195.
Poland, J.F., and Davis, G.H., 1969. Land subsidence due to withdrawal of fluids, in
Varnes, D.J., Reviews in engineering geology, v. II: Boulder Colorado, Geological
Society of America, p. 187-268.
Schwille, F. 1985. Migration of organic fluids immiscible with water in the unsaturated
and saturated zones. In Proceedings of the Second Canadian/American Conference on
Hydrogeology, June 1985, ed. B. Hitchon and M. Trudell, 31–35. Dublin, Ohio: NGWA.
Skibitzke, H.E. and G. M Robinson, Dispersion in ground water flowing through
heterogeneous material, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 386-B, B1-B3 and
Plate 1.
Slichter, C. S. 1905. Field measurements of the rate of movement of underground waters.
U.S. Geological Survey Water Supply Paper 140, Washington, D.C: excerpt, p. 16-25.
Stallman, R. W. 1965. Steady one-dimensional fluid flow in a semi-infinite porous
medium with sinusoidal surface temperature. Journal of Geophysical Research 70(12):
2821-2827.
Sudicky, E.A., 1986. A natural gradient experiment on solute transport in a sand aquifer:
Spatial variability of hydraulic conductivity and its role in the dispersion process, Water
Resources Research 22(13), 2069-2082.
Theis, C. V., 1935. The relation between lowering of the piezometric surface and rate and
duration of discharge of a well using groundwater storage. Transactions of the American
Geophysical Union 16: 519-524.
Theis, C.V., 1940. The source of water derived from wells. Civil Engineering 10(5):
277-280.
Toth, J., 1963. A theoretical analysis of groundwater flow in small drainage basins.
Journal of Geophysical Research 68(16): 4795- 4812.
Wilson, J.T., McNabb, J.F., Balkwill, D.L., Ghiorse, W.C., 1983. Enumeration and
characterization of bacteria indigenous to a shallow water-table aquifer. Ground Water
21(2), 134-142.
Winter, T.C., 1978. Numerical simulation of steady state three-dimensional groundwater
flow near lakes. Water Resources Research 14(2): 245-254.