Sequential Pumping Tests at a Well Field, Montalto Uffugo Scalo, Italy

The aim of the present work is to apply a recently developed hydraulic tomography inverse model to characterize heterogeneous aquifer in Montalto Uffugo Scalo, Italy using a sequential pumping test. The well field consists of six wells at different locations. A pumping test was initiated at a selected well and well hydrographs at the other wells were collected. The test was repeated using different wells as the pumping well and observation wells. As a result, thirty well hydrographs from the six pumping tests were collected. First, we examined the well hydrographs; each well hydrograph clearly indicates effects of lower permeability zones at different stages of each pumping test. Subsequently, we analyzed the well hydrographs using the Theis and Jacob methods to show the variability of the transmissivity and storage coefficient estimates. A distance-drawdown method then was used to estimate the equivalent homogeneous transmissivity and storage coefficients. Finally, we used a geostatistically based estimation algorithm, the Successive Linear Estimator, to estimate spatial distributions of transmissivity and storage coefficients. Results of the analysis are then discussed.