The Role of Hydrogeophysics in the 'Ike Wai Project within a Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Understanding Groundwater in Hawai'i
Abstract
The State of Hawai'i consists of a chain of volcanic islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Given this isolated setting, the population of Hawai'i is dependent on its own water resources. Due to the volcanic nature of the islands, the geology is very complex, and understanding the groundwater systems extremely challenging. The NSF EPSCoR 'Ike Wai Project is a multi-disciplinary project, aimed to improve our knowledge of the Hawaiian groundwater systems, to ensure a sustainable water future for the State of Hawai'i. The project integrates geophysics, geology, geochemistry, microbiology, groundwater modeling, indigenous knowledge, economics and management, as well as data science.
This talk will primarily focus on the role of hydrogeophysics in the project, and how it is integrated to provide value and crucial information for groundwater modeling and analyses, having an impact far beyond its own discipline. We will highlight the importance of integrating hydrogeophysics and groundwater modeling in the grand scheme of water management in volcanic island settings, presenting important scientific questions being addressed as well as critical hydrogeologic features to identify and consider. We will discuss challenges and limitations of various hydrogeophysical techniques in volcanic settings, as well as complementarity of methods and new ways to overcome these challenges. Furthermore, we will illustrate the above with both synthetic and field data examples for the Hawaiian volcanic island setting.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFMNS41A0803G
- Keywords:
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- 0920 Gravity methods;
- EXPLORATION GEOPHYSICSDE: 0925 Magnetic and electrical methods;
- EXPLORATION GEOPHYSICSDE: 0935 Seismic methods;
- EXPLORATION GEOPHYSICSDE: 1835 Hydrogeophysics;
- HYDROLOGY