Understanding heterogeneity in UK Chalk catchments and its influence on groundwater flooding

The numerical simulation of groundwater flooding is increasingly necessary as this problem is gaining recognition from government and regulators and climate change may bring more extreme events. The Natural Environment Research Council of the UK is funding the British Geological Survey, Imperial College, and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology to examine the problem of groundwater flooding in the Cretaceous Chalk of Berkshire, 50 kilometres west of London. Typically regional resource issues can be examined using traditional groundwater models that do not consider in detail the influence of flow in the unsaturated zone, but the delays in recharge transmission through this zone to the water table may be very significant in terms of flood timing and prediction. The position of ground elevation relative to water table is clearly important but not often considered in groundwater resource modelling. Groundwater level and stream (and flood) flow responses are important data that may be hard to gather from typical groundwater monitoring systems. These problems have been examined in a Chalk catchment in Berkshire where good records of the 2000-1 and 2003 flooding events have been collected, including flooded extent, rainfall, groundwater levels, river and spring flows. From this analysis, it appears that two groundwater mounds develop in the upper part of the Pang and Lambourn catchments. These mounds intersect dry valleys, which flowed for several months, the consequent flooding causing considerably disruption. Modelling of these events is providing new insight into the heterogeneity of Chalk transmissivity and storage parameters, enhanced knowledge of its dual permeability and porosity and demonstrating the importance of understanding the post-depositional hydrogeological history of the aquifer.