Using Hydraulic Head Measurements in Variable ... - Info Ngwa


Using Hydraulic Head Measurements in Variable ... - Info Ngwa

Issue Paper/

Using Hydraulic Head Measurements in

Variable-Density Ground Water Flow Analyses

by Vincent Post 1 , Henk Kooi 2 , and Craig Simmons 3


The use of hydraulic head measurements in ground water of variable density is considerably more complicated

than for the case of constant-density ground water. A theoretical framework for dealing with these complications

does exist in the current literature but suffers from a lack of awareness among many hydrogeologists.

When corrections for density variations are ignored or not properly taken into account, misinterpretation of both

ground water flow direction and magnitude may result. This paper summarizes the existing theoretical framework

and provides practical guidelines for the interpretation of head measurements in variable-density ground water

systems. It will be argued that, provided that the proper corrections are taken into account, fresh water heads can

be used to analyze both horizontal and vertical flow components. To avoid potential confusion, it is recommended

that the use of the so-called environmental water head, which was initially introduced to facilitate the analysis of

vertical ground water flow, be abandoned in favor of properly computed fresh water head analyses. The presented

methodology provides a framework for determining quantitatively when variable-density effects on ground water

flow need to be taken into account or can be justifiably neglected. Therefore, we recommend that it should

become part of all hydrogeologic analyses in which density effects are suspected to play a role.


Using hydraulic head observations to infer ground

water flow directions and flow rates is a basic skill of

every hydrogeologist. It is an application of Darcy’s law:

all that is required are estimates of hydraulic conductivity,

K, and of the hydraulic gradient, rh, or components

thereof. The practicality and convenience of the aforementioned

field method obviously stems from the simple

1 Corresponding auth or: D epartment of Hydrol ogy and

G eo- E nv ironmental Science, F acul ty of E arth and L if e Sciences,

Vrij e U niv ersiteit, D e B oel el aan 10 8 5 , 10 8 1 HV A msterdam,

T h e N eth erl ands; 131 ( 0 ) 20 5 9 8 7 4 0 2; f ax 131 ( 0 ) 20 5 9 8 9 9 4 0 ;

v incent. post@ f al w . v u. nl

2 D epartment of Hydrol ogy and G eo- E nv ironmental Science,

F acul ty of E arth and L if e Sciences, Vrij e U niv ersiteit, A msterdam,

T h e N eth erl ands.

3 Sch ool of Ch emistry, Ph ysics and E arth Sciences, F l inders

U niv ersity, A del aide, South A ustral ia, A ustral ia.

R eceiv ed O ctober 20 0 6 , accepted M arch 20 0 7 .

Copyrigh t ª 20 0 7 T h e A uth or( s)

J ournal compil ation ª 20 0 7 N ational G round W ater A ssociation.

doi: 10 . 1111/j . 17 4 5 - 6 5 8 4 . 20 0 7 . 0 0 339 . x

664 Vol. 45, No. 6—GROUND WATER—November-December 2007 (pages 664–671)

nature of Darcy’s law. There are uncertainties in flow estimates,

which arise from insufficient knowledge of

hydraulic conductivity and heterogeneity, complications

due to anisotropy, or large well spacing or screen length,

but otherwise, it is rather straightforward.

What is less well known is the fact that the classical

form of Darcy’s law, cast in terms of hydraulic head, and

hence, the intuitive field method, does not apply to

ground water of variable density. Density variations can

result from differences in temperature or pressure but

more often are caused by differences in solute concentration.

Variable density is particularly relevant in coastal

areas, in sedimentary basins, and where dense contaminant

plumes are present. The theory of ground water flow

in variable density systems is considerably more complicated

than under density invariant conditions, but there

are still practical methods for dealing with it in combination

with field data.

No simple guidelines currently exist that allow hydrogeologists

to easily and robustly determine a priori

whether a hydrogeologic analysis should be treated in

a density-dependent or density-independent manner. The

analyses presented in this paper should be conducted

where this uncertainty arises and in order to examine the

potential consequences of ignoring density-dependent

flow in hydrogeologic analyses.

Despite its great importance for hydrogeologists, there

are few, if any, textbooks that explain how to correctly

use field data to assess ground water flow under variabledensity

conditions. A theoretical treatment was presented

by L usczynski (1961) , and although it was reiterated

in some other publications (DeWiest 1967 ; B ear 197 2;

O berlander 1989; S t. G ermain 20 0 1) , the proposed methodology

did not become part of the mainstream literature.

E xcellent treatises, including examples, were presented by

Van der E em (1992) and J uster (1995) , but these appear

not to have reached a wide international audience.

Van Dam (197 7 ) noted that ‘ ‘ . there is much unacquaintedness

and misunderstanding about the theory to

be applied .’’ and C ustodio (1987 ) stated that the various

concepts of water heads of variable density ‘ ‘ . do

not solve the problem in a clear way.’’ In a recent article,

S immons (20 0 5) cautioned about the potential abuse of

the fresh water head, noting, ‘ ‘ P ossibly one of the simplest

analysis approaches used in variable density flow is the

concept of ‘ equivalent freshwater head’ but this is often

too simple or even erroneous, especially where vertical

flow is of interest.’’ According to experience of the

authors, confusion and misconceptions about the proper

ways of dealing with density variations in flow calculations

still abound, which forms the prime motivation for

the present paper. The most common misconception

observed by the authors (even in research papers and textbooks)

is the notion that converting measured heads to

fresh water heads suffices to analyze flow patterns and

rates in variable-density ground water systems. This erroneous

approach is not only caused by a lack of attention

paid to variable-density flow calculations in textbooks

but is probably also linked to the fact that several mainstream

numerical codes that simulate variable-density

flow solve ground water equations written in terms of

fresh water head.

The theoretical framework as outlined in this paper

is based on the existing literature. The objective here is to

increase awareness among professionals in the field and

thus avoid misinterpretation of head data in variabledensity

settings. The paper reinforces the appropriate

methodology that should be applied in variable-density

ground water analyses and discusses common problems

that may be encountered along the way. M oreover, it will

be argued that the use of the so-called environmental

water head, as initially introduced by L usczynski (1961) ,

is best avoided. We develop ‘ ‘ four golden rules’’ that we

believe will provide useful and much needed guidance in

the proper application of these concepts.

E mphasis is placed on situations where density is

influenced by solute concentration since they are encountered

by the vast majority of hydrogeologists. H owever,

examples and procedures are readily transferable to conditions

where temperature or pressure is the prime control

on density variability by using the appropriate density

contrasts. S ince the aim here is to present the simplest set

of practical rules for dealing with head measurements in

variable-density systems, we intentionally refrain from

presenting an analysis of the more complicated effects of

anisotropy, heterogeneity, and dipping aquifers. R eaders

are referred to the works of B achu (1995) and B achu and

M ichael (20 0 2) for a detailed discussion of these topics.

Fundamentals of Variable-Density Flow

Darcy’ s L aw

The well-known short-hand notation of the differential

equation form of Darcy’s law is as follows:

~q ¼ 2 Krh ð1Þ

In terms of physics, this equation relates three quantities.

~q denotes specific discharge (volume of fluid per

unit cross-sectional area of porous medium per unit time,

m 3 /m 2 /s) , also referred to as the Darcy velocity. rh is the

driving force of ground water flow per unit weight of

ground water (dimensionless) . K is the hydraulic conductivity,

a proportionality coefficient that describes the ease

by which fluid flows through a porous medium per unit

flow rate (m/s) . As stated, we neglect directional dependency

or anisotropy of the latter quantity in this manuscript

and, therefore, treat K as a scalar quantity, which

can be expressed by a singular numerical value at each

point in the porous medium. Under these conditions, the

three flow components are the following:

qx ¼ 2 K @h


qy ¼ 2 K @h


qz ¼ 2 K @h





E quation 1 is a simplified form of the more general

physical law for fluid flow in a porous medium, which

also applies to variable-density fluids (B ear 197 2) :

with components:

~q ¼ 2 k

ðrP 2 q~gÞ ð2Þ


qx ¼ 2 k @P

l @x

qy ¼ 2 k @P

l @y

qz ¼ 2 k






1 qg ð2cÞ

where k is intrinsic permeability (m 2 ) , a property of the

porous medium; l is dynamic viscosity (kg/m/s) of the

ground water; P is fluid pressure (kg/m/s 2 ) ; q (kg/m 3 ) is

V. P ost et al. GROUND WATER 45, n o. 6: 664–671 665

fluid density; and ~g is the gravitational acceleration

(m/s 2 ) . E quation 2 explicitly shows the two basic driving

forces for ground water flow: 2rP is the force per unit

volume of ground water due to spatial differences in pore

water pressure, and q~g is the gravity force per unit

volume experienced by the ground water. B oth forces,

naturally, also act on ground water of uniform density.

H owever, in E quation 1, these two forces are lumped into

the single, convenient expression of gradient of hydraulic

head, where the individual driving forces are rendered

invisible. F or ground water of variable density such

a ‘ ‘ gradient form’’ does not exist. This fundamental distinction

is the main reason why quantification of ground

water flow from field data, which normally occurs in the

form of head measurements, requires a special treatment.

Head and P ressure Formulation

E quation 2 shows that for variable-density flow calculations,

ground water pressure P and density q should be

known, rather than hydraulic head h. P ressure, however, is

not often used in everyday life, and hydrogeologists are

more familiar with the concept of head. A number of key

relationships among these quantities are therefore summarized

here, which will subsequently be exploited to cast

E quations 2a through 2c in terms of head.

H ydraulic head h (m) is obtained by measuring the

level of the water-air interface in a ground water observation

well, where levels refer to a common datum, often

mean sea level. Two contributions to h are distinguished,

and indicated in F igure 1a:

hi ¼ zi 1 hp;i


where zi (elevation head) represents the (mean) level of

the well screen, and hp,i (pressure head) is the length of

the water column in the well relative to zi. The subscript i

is added to indicate that these values are measured at

point i. F or stagnant water conditions in the well, hp,i is

related to the pressure of the ground water at the well

screen Pi by the following:

hp;i ¼ Pi

q ig


where q i (kg/m 3 ) is the density of the water in the piezometer

tube, i.e., of the ground water surrounding the well

screen. It follows that, in a system where q varies spatially,

values of hp,i do not correctly represent spatial variations

of P. In other words, the same pressure can

correspond to different values of hp,i, depending on

ground water density. L usczynski (1961) , therefore, used

the term point water head for h i to indicate that the values

are uniquely linked to the ambient ground water density

at the well screen.

To eliminate the ambiguity between hp,i and Pi, hp,i

can be normalized using a reference density. That is, the

water column in each observation well is replaced by an

(imaginary) equivalent column of water of equal density

for all the wells (F igure 1b) . Any value of q can be used

for this purpose (Van der E em 1992) , but fresh water is

used most often, which gives rise to the definition of fresh

water head:

hf;i ¼ zi 1 Pi

q fg


where qf is fresh water density. F resh water head can be

readily calculated from point water head measurements

using the following:

hf;i ¼ qi hi 2

qf qi 2 qf zi

qf ð6Þ

F resh water head is always larger than or equal to

point water head.

Figure 1. Schematic representation of head definitions in variable-density ground water systems (modified from Lusczynski

1961). Lightest shading corresponds to fresh water and darker shading represents increasing salinity.


F rom E quations 2a and 2b follows that horizontal

flow components (qx and qy) should be calculated from

the corresponding horizontal components of the pressure

gradient. Alternatively, the horizontal component of the

head gradient can be used, provided the heads refer to the

same density. R earranging and differentiating E quation 5

with respect to x and y and inserting the result into E quations

2a and 2b gives the following:

qx ¼ 2 kqfg lf @hf

lf l @x

qy ¼ 2 kqfg lf @hf

lf l @y


¼ 2 Kf



¼ 2 Kf


ð7 aÞ

ð7 bÞ

Kf is the fresh water hydraulic conductivity. It is assumed

here that salinity variations have a negligible effect on l

so that lf/l ’ 1 in E quations 7 a and 7 b, which is a very

good approximation for most practical applications.

M oreover, the difference between Kf and field-measured

values of hydraulic conductivity, which are for ambient

values of l and q, is much smaller than the uncertainty

associated with this parameter. H ence, no special corrections

to existing hydraulic conductivity information are

normally required.

E quation 2c shows that evaluation of the vertical

flow component is different from the horizontal components

in that a term involving local ground water density

is needed. S imilar to the horizontal flow components, the

vertical component can also be cast in terms of fresh

water head by rearranging and differentiating E quation 5

and inserting the result into E quation 2c:

qz ¼ 2 kq fg

l f

¼ 2 Kf

l f




@z 1



@z 1

q 2 q f

q f

q 2 q f

q f

! #

! #

ð7 cÞ

in which the term q 2 qf , which represents the relative

q f

density contrast, accounts for the buoyancy effect on

the vertical flow. E quation 7 c is used in several wellknown

variable-density flow and transport codes (e.g.,


L usczynski (1961) introduced the concept of environmental

water head (he,i) in order to calculate vertical

flow with the convenient and familiar classical form of

Darcy’s law:

qz ¼ 2 kqfg lf @he;i

lf l @z


¼ 2 Kf



The buoyancy effect on the vertical flow is taken

into account in the definition of the environmental water

head. In an appendix to his paper, L usczynski (1961)

demonstrated the validity of this approach. F igure 1c illustrates

that environmental water head is obtained when the

observation well is filled with stagnant water in which the

variations of density are identical to those encountered

along the vertical in the ground water just outside the well.

That is, instead of point water or fresh water, the well is

thought to be filled with ‘ ‘ environmental’’ water. With this

assumption and in the absence of vertical ground water

flow, the water level in the well will coincide with the

water table since the water pressure is hydrostatic both

inside and outside the well. If there is vertical flow, the

water pressure outside the well will differ from the hydrostatic

pressure. In L usczynski’s (1961) definition of the

environmental water head, this difference is expressed as

a column of fresh water, which is a measure for the deviation

of he,i from the water table. The concept is ingenious

but unfortunately becomes nonintuitive when highdensity

water is present all the way up to the water table.

DeWiest (1967 ) introduced the ‘ ‘ true environmental

head’’ in which environmental water head is related to

pressure according to the following:

he;i ¼ zi 1 pi

q eg


where qe is the average density of the water between zi

and he,i in s id e the well. This definition is not very practical,

however, since he,i and qe are interdependent (J uster

1995) . M oreover, qe is easily confused with the average

density of the water o u t s id e the well qa (defined later on

in this paper) used by L usczynski (1961) in his original

definition of environmental water head.

Ap p lication and Interp retation P rocedure

In this section, the procedure for the interpretation

of head measurements in variable-density ground water will

be outlined. These will be illustrated with examples and the

implications of the necessary assumptions will be discussed.

Horiz ontal Flow C omp onent

When calculating horizontal flow, it is crucially

important that the fresh water head gradient in E quations

7 a and 7 b (or pressure gradient in E quations 2a and 2b) is

evaluated using fresh water heads at the same depth

because, in contrast to uniform density ground water,

fresh water head may vary with depth, even for hydrostatic

(i.e., no vertical flow) conditions. Thus, when measurements

are taken from piezometers with screens at

different depths, fresh water heads need to be calculated

at a suitable reference depth. A common approach is to

assume hydrostatic conditions between the well screen

and the reference depth. The pressure at the reference

depth (zr) then becomes as follows:


Pr ¼ Pi 2 g

Z zr


qdz ¼ Pi 2 q agðzr 2 ziÞ ð10 Þ

qa ¼ 1

Z zr

qdz ð11Þ

zr 2 zi zi

q a denotes the average water density between measurement

point zi and the reference level zr. The corresponding

fresh water head at zr (hf,r) is then obtained

from E quation 5:


hf;r ¼ zr 1 Pr

q fg ¼ zr 1 q i

q f

ðhi 2 ziÞ 2 qa ðzr 2 ziÞ ð12Þ

qf Using field data, the horizontal component of flow is

obtained from the following:

and analogously for qy.

qx ¼ 2 Kf




E x amp le 1 . Horiz ontal Flow

C onsider two piezometers some distance x apart

that have their well screens located in the same aquifer

(F igure 2) . S creen depths and the measured point water

heads and densities are listed in Table 1. B ecause the

screen depths differ 10 m, fresh water heads have to be

calculated for a single reference depth using E quation 12.

R esults for zr ¼ 240 m (the depth of piezometer 1) and

qa ¼ 10 0 5 kg/m 3 (average of the densities at the two

screens) are given in Table 2 under the heading ‘ ‘ mean.’’

C omparison of the values with the point water heads in

Table 1 shows that the horizontal gradients and hence the

suggested flow directions for the two head types are

opposite. C learly, the gradient of h f, r should be combined

with a value for Kf to arrive at a proper estimate of horizontal


It is important to realize that several of the steps

outlined in example 1 involve assumptions and that each

of these assumptions introduces uncertainty in the final

flow estimate. A potential source of uncertainty specific

for variable-density flow estimation is the required estimate

of average density q a between screen and reference

depth. A simple approach to (approximately) quantify this

uncertainty can be demonstrated for the data of example

1. Above, the average of the densities of the water at the

two screens was used for qa, in order to obtain a fresh

water head value for the 50 -m-deep well at z r ¼ 240 m.

This average density can be thought to correspond to a

linear vertical density profile in the depth range between

the two screens as shown in F igure 2. E vidently, other

density profiles and corresponding values of qa are possible.

In the absence of additional constraints, two ‘ ‘ endmember’’

density profiles can be constructed, indicated

by ‘ ‘ min’’ and ‘ ‘ max’’ in F igure 2, where values of qa

correspond to the density values listed for both piezometers

(F igure 2) . M inimum, maximum, and mean values

for hf,r are listed in Table 2. R esults show that the

head difference between the two piezometers varies with

the assumed average density by about 40 % , which implies

a similar uncertainty in the magnitude of the flow

component. S trictly speaking, the uncertainty may still

have been underestimated with the adopted approach

because the density at 240 -m depth at piezometer 2 need

not be equal to the density at piezometer 1 if lateral variations

in density between the two wells occur. Therefore,

alternative methods of uncertainty assessment are possible.

The present example does demonstrate, however,

the importance of conducting such an assessment to check

to what extent inferred flow conditions are significant.

Vertical Flow C omp onent

The second term in large brackets in E quation 7 c is

essential to correctly describe variable-density flow. F or

example, under hydrostatic conditions (qz ¼ 0 ) in a saline

aquifer of sea water concentration (q ¼ 10 25 kg/m 3 ) , the

density excess ratio is (q 2 q f) /q f ¼ 0 .0 25, and fresh

Figure 2 . Left: P iezometers used in ex ample problems. D arker shading represents increasing salinity. N ote that in the ex amples,

only the density at the well screens is known and not the true density distribution in the aq uifer. R ight: vertical density

distributions considered in the calculations of hf, r and he, i.


T able 1

W ell Screen D epth, P oint W ater H ead, D ensity, and

C alculated Fresh W ater H eads of E x ample 1

P iezometer

Screen D epth


water head decreases with depth according to @hf/@z ¼

20 .0 25. Thus, both terms cancel each other in E quation

13 to correctly describe the zero flow condition. Ignoring

the buoyancy term, however, would yield a markedly

erroneous flow estimate.

E x amp le 2 . Vertical Flow: Fresh Water Head Formulation

F or the calculation of vertical flow, consider the

same piezometers as in example 1. In this example, however,

their well screens are not separated laterally but

are in the same vertical ( x ¼ 0 ) . To evaluate the

vertical flow component, E quation 7 c must be cast in finitedifference


qz ¼ 2 Kf



z 1

q a 2 q f

q f

! #


where hf ¼ hf,2 2 hf,1 and z ¼ z2 2 z1 are the difference

in fresh water head and elevation head of the piezometers,

respectively, and q a is the average density of the

ground water between the screens, defined analogously to

E quation 11. The calculated values of qz for a value of

Kf ¼ 10 m/d are listed in Table 3. As before, uncertainty

arises from the unknown average density between the

point measurements (F igure 2) .

F or coastal settings where fresh overlies saline

ground water, L usczynski (1961) inferred the following:

he;i ¼ zr 1 q i

q f




(kg/ m 3 )

hf, i


1 240 1.25 10 0 4 1.42

2 250 1.20 10 0 6 1.51

ðhi 2 ziÞ 2 qa ðzr 2 ziÞ ð15Þ

qf where zr denotes an arbitrary reference level above which

ground water is fresh and where q a is the average density

of water between z r and screen depth z i. The latter is calculated

with E quation 11.

T able 2

Fresh W ater H eads of P iezometers at

R eference D epth z r ¼ 24 0 m of E x ample 1 for

q a ¼ 10 0 4 (M inimum), q a ¼ 10 0 5 (M ean), and

q a ¼ 10 0 6 kg/ m 3 (M ax imum)

P iezometer zr (m)

M inimum


h f, r

M ean


M ax imum


1 240 1.42 1.42 1.42

2 240 1.47 1.46 1.45

T able 3

Fresh W ater H ead G radient, B uoyancy T erm,

and V ertical C omponent of Specific D ischarge

of E x ample 2 for qa ¼ 10 0 4 (M inimum), qa ¼ 10 0 5

(M ean), and qa ¼ 10 0 6 kg/ m 3 (M ax imum)

M inimum M ean M ax imum


z 9 3 10 23 9 3 10 23 9 3 10 23

qa 2 qf q 0 .0 0 4 0 .0 0 5 0 .0 0 6


qz (m/d) 0 .0 5 0 .0 4 0 .0 3

E x amp le 3 . Vertical Flow: E nv ironmental Water Head


Again, consider the same piezometers as in example

2. Application of E quation 15 assuming zr ¼ 0 m (to

make sure reference depth is above the domain of ‘ ‘ nonfresh

water’’ for minimum, mean, and average density

distributions) results in the values listed in Table 4. Values

of q z are calculated with the finite-difference form of

E quation 8:

qz ¼ 2 Kf




C alculated values of qz are the same as in example 2,

as they should be.

The expression for he,i in E quation 15 is identical to

that of h f,r in E quation 12. The values of h f,r listed in

Table 2 indeed yield the vertical gradients in environmental

water head listed in Table 4. Values of he,i and hf,r do

differ, however, because different reference levels were

used (0 and 240 m, respectively) . A constant difference

in head is of no consequence, however, when gradients

are calculated.

The equivalence of the environmental water head

approach and the fresh water head approach to calculate

vertical flow can furthermore be demonstrated in the following

way. E quation 15 is written in terms of fresh water

head using E quations 5 and 10 :

he;i ¼ hf;r ¼ hf;i 2 q a 2 q f

q f

ðzr 2 ziÞ ð17 Þ

At two well screens in the same vertical, this gives

the following:

he;1 ¼ hf;1 2 q a;1 2 q f

q f

he;2 ¼ hf;2 2 q a;2 2 q f

q f

ðzr 2 z1Þ ð18aÞ

ðzr 2 z2Þ ð18bÞ

Note that the average densities are different for each

screen because they are evaluated over different intervals

and that:

q a;1ðzr 2 z1Þ ¼

Z zr


qdz ð19aÞ


Z zr

qa;2ðzr 2 z2Þ ¼


qdz ¼ q a;1ðzr 2 z1Þ 1 q aðz1 2 z2Þ


where qa is the average density between the two screen

depths. Taking the difference ( he, i ¼ he,2 2 he,1) yields

the following:

he;i ¼ hf;2 2 hf;1 1 q a 2 q f

q f

¼ hf;i 1 q a 2 q f

q f

ðz2 2 z1Þ

z ð20 Þ

Dividing by z gives the term in large brackets in

E quation 14.

Discussion and C onclusions

The previous discussion demonstrates that very subtle

density variations can have a major impact on the

flow field and necessitate employment of the methodology

outlined earlier. A detailed description of the

full density field in the area under investigation is costly

and difficult to obtain and will usually not be available.

At minimum though, all head measurements should be

carried out in conjunction with measurements of electrical

conductivity. The density can then be estimated

from simple relationships between density and salinity

available in the literature (R eilly and G oodman 1985;

H olzbecher 1998) .

S o far, it has not been assessed at what density contrasts

the aforementioned corrections become significant

and need to be taken into account. To this aim, the value

of hf,i (E quation 6) for hi ¼ 0 is contoured in F igure 3 as

a function of qi and zi. It provides a measure of the degree

of misinterpretation of fluid pressure at the well screen

when solely relying on point water heads for typical conditions

in coastal aquifers. As can be seen from the figure,

Figure 3. C ontour plot of the value of hf, i (in m) according

to E q uation 6 for h i ¼ 0 m as a function of q i and z i. T he

dashed line represents the minimum error associated with

head measurements (0 .0 2 m).


T able 4

E nvironmental W ater H eads of P iezometers at

zi ¼ 24 0 and zi ¼ 25 0 m, E nvironmental

W ater H ead G radient and V ertical C omponent of

Specific D ischarge of E x ample 2 for D ifferent

V alues of q a

M inimum M ean M ax imum

he,240 1.42 1.34 1.26

he,250 1.47 1.38 1.29


z 5 3 10 23 4 3 10 23 3 3 10 23


hf deviates up to several meters from the ‘ ‘ measured’’

value of hi ¼ 0 . Note that in flat coastal areas (e.g., deltas,

sedimentary basins) , head differences that drive ground

water flow are typically on the order of decimeters.

The line in F igure 3 represents the precision of carefully

taken head measurements (0 .0 2 m) and can be used

to assess when density variations start to become important.

S light deviations from fresh water densities may

already lead to corrections exceeding the precision of the

head measurements at depths of several tens of meters or

more. Assessments of this type should always be the first

step in any hydrogeologic study to determine if variabledensity

effects need to be taken into account. If these

effects cannot be ruled out a priori, they should be quantified

by means of the analyses presented in this paper. In

order to justify the choice of a conceptual hydrogeologic

framework in an explicit rather than implicit manner,

such checks should be applied more routinely than they

appear to be at present.

It was already discussed previously that the required

estimate of the average density q a between screen and

reference depth is a significant source of uncertainty in

the flow calculations. Uncertainties obviously tend to increase

considerably for larger vertical distances between

screen depth and reference level. As a general rule, reference

depth should, therefore, be chosen within the depth

range of the employed well screens. C ontour maps of

fresh water head in extensive aquifers, even when referred

to the same vertical level, should therefore be regarded

with suspicion and subsequently used with caution. The

requisite of using a single horizontal reference level further

implies that isohyps maps for tilted aquifers cannot

be constructed over large distances in the dip direction.

O ther potential sources of uncertainty in these analyses

are (1) estimates of hydraulic conductivity, Kf, which

is beyond the scope of the present paper because it is

common also to uniform density ground water flow; (2)

the assumption of hydrostatic conditions between screen

and reference depth; and (3) finite-length screens. Additional

complexity (and uncertainty) will occur in systems

where there is substantial heterogeneity, anisotropy, and

complex geometries associated with, for example, sloping

aquifer configurations.

The third source of uncertainty noted previously,

finite length of well screens, stems not only from

ambiguity in assigning a single value depth to the screen

but also from additional uncertainty regarding the meaning

of the density of water obtained from the well due to

uncertain mixing conditions along the well screen.

Assessment of the impact of these uncertainties appears

nontrivial but at least suggests that variable-density

ground water flow assessment using data from wells with

long screens should be avoided.

Although the environmental water head approach has

the nicety of a simpler and more familiar expression of

the flow E quation 16, there is no true advantage over

E quation 14. Whereas in the latter approach density corrections

are applied to the gradient component, in the

environmental water head approach, similar corrections

are incorporated in the calculation of environmental water

heads before the gradient operator is applied. E nvironmental

water heads may seem more practical because

they are more readily rendered in the form of isohyps

maps or vertical cross sections. H owever, such maps are

hardly useful and may even be considered ‘ ‘ dangerous’’

because they easily cause mis- or overinterpretation and

do not allow visualization of the often large uncertainties.

F urthermore, the choice of reference depth in settings

where salt water overlies fresh water or where saline surface

water is present, such as in estuarine and offshore

ground water hydrology, is nonintuitive, not described in

literature, and, therefore, less practical for nonspecialists.

It can therefore easily be argued that the fresh water head

approach with the appropriate correction for negative

buoyancy should be endorsed as the preferred approach in

variable-density analyses because it only requires making

assumptions about the water density variations between

well screens.

The procedures and guidelines set forward in this

paper can be summarized as a set of four golden rules

that should be adhered to in order to correctly infer

ground water flow (directions and magnitudes) of

variable-density ground water, namely:

1. C ollect fluid density information with all head measurements.

2. C alculate horizontal flow components from fresh water

heads referenced to the same elevation.

3. C alculate vertical flow components from the gradient of

fresh water head with an appropriate correction for (negative)

buoyancy of the ground water between the two measurement


4. P rovide an assessment of the uncertainty associated with

the estimated ground water flow components.

Ack nowledgment

The authors would like to thank the reviewers C hristian

L angevin and Ann M ulligan for their thoughtful and constructive

comments, which helped improve the manuscript.

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