Exploration and identification of groundwater resources 1300-OPZWPW-GES

The lecture is designed to acquaint students with:
- diversification and characteristic of groundwater circulation zones
- national, regional and local groundwater monitoring
- balance of water, balance of groundwater (raw hydrogeological and detailed balance) water-management balance
- a groundwater reservoir (an aquifer, a water-bearing horizon, a multiaquifer formation), its division according to the criterion of usability, hydrological system,
- division and characteristics of groundwater resources by various criteria,
- the legal basis for determining resources
- groundwater intakes
- determination of admissible volume of extracted groundwater divided into new and existing intakes, elimination of wells:
• analysis of archival materials, the basics for determining the hydrogeological conditions at the site of the new intakes,
• hydrogeological research project (types of pumping at the single intakes and pumping well with observation wells, research in the area of intake collection of samples for granulometric, physico-chemical and bacteriological testing)
• geological supervision and oversight of the geological drilling and pumping
• quantitative and qualitative criteria for determining groundwater resources
• the method of calculation of resources and recognition of one- and multihole groundwater intake with usage of analytical and mathematical modeling
• protection of the quality and quantity of resources: protection zones and groundwater level and groundwater quality monitoring,
• documenting of admissible volume of extracted groundwater exploitation and the method of their approval,
- determination of renewable groundwater
• hydrogeological regionalization of Poland: regions, subregions, hydrogeological regions, groundwater bodies, MGB, types of units balance: catchment, hydrological region, water-management region
• types of recharge: infiltration, lateral, ascending recharge,
• schedule of work for determination of renewable resources: collection of archival data, work and field studies, laboratory research,
• preparation of data for the calculations, regional variability of parameters for the calculation (precipitation, thickness of aquifers, evapotranspiration, infiltration coefficient)
• analytical methods for determining resources: hydrologic (division of hydrograph, Kille’s, Wundt’s method), indicator method (by Duda et al.)
• numerical methods: boundaries of the balanced area (which has been tested on a numerical model, package selection, calculation, input data, boundary conditions, validation of model, analysis calculation error)
- determination of disposable resources
• criteria of limitation of groundwater usage (residual flow of rivers, ecosystems dependent on groundwater, protected areas, current water exploitation permission and their regional distribution, et al.)
• the methodology of determining the disposable resources,
• regional differences of volume of disposable resources within the balanced area
• groundwater monitoring (quantitative and qualitative monitoring)
• hydrogeological documentation and procedures for the approval of resources,
- prospective resources and available for reclaiming,
- uniform water-management balance of water regions and catchment area,
- therapeutic water resources:
• the structure of therapeutic water occurrence, therapeutic water intakes (relict and infiltration waters), well influence area with determined safe yield of therapeutic waters
• calculating the specificity of calculation of renewable and disposable resources of therapeutic waters
- geothermal water and geothermal energy resources:
• the method of projection and construction of geothermal wells as well as the scope and methods of hydrogeological research in these wells,
• geothermal water and geothermal energy resources
• the ability to neutralize the water,
• hydrogeological documentation and procedures for its approval.
- groundwater resources in Poland and the state of their recognition; ordinary, therapeutic and thermal water,
- the protection of groundwater resources in Poland, the management of resources (legislation, institutions responsible for water management, including groundwater management).

Type of course

obligatory courses

Prerequisites (description)

Students should have basic knowledge related to: - classification of rocks because of their genesis and lithological composition; - stratification of rocks; - tectonics of rocks; - Quaternary geology; - methods of hydrological research used in hydrogeology - systematics of hydrogeology; - chemical composition and physical properties of groundwater and interpretation of hydrogeochemical analyses - groundwater flow and the rules that govern it - groundwater resources - methodology of hydrogeological field research - methodology of geological drilling - types of groundwater intakes - groundwater intakes projection - groundwater protection The knowledge on these subjects a student can earn during the following obligatory subjects conducted at UW: - Dynamic Geology (lecture and exercises of at least two semesters); - Structural Geology (lecture and exercises of at least one semester); - Geomorphology and Quaternary Geology (lecture and exercises of at least one semester); - Hydrology and hydraulics (lecture and exercises of at least one semester); - Hydrogeology (lecture and exercises of at least one semester); - Groundwater protection (lecture and exercises of at least one semester); - Field course in hydrogeology, engineering geology and environmental protection - Drilling (lecture and exercises of at least one semester), - Field course in applied geology and environmental protection, - Drilling (lecture and exercises of at least one semester), - Methods for calculation of groundwater flow (lecture and exercise of at least one semester), - Hydrogeological projection and documentation (lecture and exercise of at least one semester), - Hydrogeological mapping (lecture of at least one semester).

Learning outcomes

After completing the lectures and a student:
- has knowledge of water and water-management balances
- has knowledge on projecting research to preparation a resource documentation
- has knowledge of resources and volume of ordinary, mineral and thermal water reservoirs in Poland
- has deepened knowledge of admissible volume of extracted groundwater of intake and disposable resources of the area
- has knowledge of the range of modeling of hydrodynamic processes under simulated condition on numerical model,
- knows and understands the basic concepts of copyright and industrial property.

Assessment criteria

Written exam.

Additional information

Information on level of this course, year of study and semester when the course unit is delivered, types and amount of class hours - can be found in course structure diagrams of apropriate study programmes. This course is related to the following study programmes:

Applied geology, full-time, second cycle degree

Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system:

Description of 1300-OPZWPW-GES in USOSweb