Homework #5: Conceptual model and grid for the project area.                                                              Dr. Sanders
Due Thursday, April 11, 2002

Conceptual Model

Construct a conceptual model for the study area.  A conceptual model includes a description of the following:

    * The boundaries to the model area: Where are they, and are they no-flow boundaries, or constant head (specified head) boundaries?  Explain.  If there are constant (specified) head boundaries, tell what the hydraulic head is at the location of each one.  Give it in units of feet above sea level.

    * The hydrostratigraphy of the model area: What hydrostratigraphic units are present?  Remember: a hydrostratigraphic unit is a body of rock or sediment that acts as an aquifer, or as an aquitard.  Tell which types of units are present, relating them to your description of the geology of the area.  If you say that a unit is an aquifer, tell whether it is unconfined, confined, or perched.  Also give the thickness of each layer, and for aquifers, tell the direction of flow within the aquifer, if you know it.

    * The stresses on ground water within the model area.  In this case, there will be two types of stresses: a) pumping wells, including the well that we are focused on, and b) recharge to the aquifer from infiltration of rainfall.  Eventually, we will want to quantify the rate--that is, tell what the pumping rate is for the wells (in units of cubic feet per day), and give the rate of recharge to the aquifer (in units of feet per day).  However, for this homework assignment, you don't need to make these quantitative assessments.  We'll do that in the next draft.

Your description of the conceptual model will probably be about 1 to 1-1/2 pages long (typed, double-spaced, with 1" margins).  It is due at class time on April 11.

Model Grid

Using Graphic Groundwater and Excel, construct a grid for the model area.  I e-mailed everyone a copy of the map.

You also can get a copy by clicking here, but there's a catch!  The version here is a .jpg version, which will not work in Graphic Groundwater.  To use it, you will have to convert it to bitmap (.bmp) format.  You can do that by using a graphics program like MSPaint, or Paintshop Pro, which you can find on our ESCI department computers.  Just save the image that you get by clicking here, then open the file in MSPaint or Paintshop, click "Save As", and select the file format as bitmap, and click save.  If you have the copy I e-mailed, you won't have to do this.

At the location of the Community Water Supply (CWS) well, use a grid spacing of 50 ft by 50 ft.  It probably would be good to place the well at the center of a 5 x 5 block of 50 ft by 50 ft cells.  Outside of that block, the cells should be larger, gradually increasing in each dimension.  As you increase the size of the cells, make sure that each cell dimension is no more than 1.5 times the dimension of the adjacent cell.  Less than or equal to 1.5 is fine.

Please save your grid in an Excel file (give each column an appropriate heading, and put your name in the filename) and e-mail it to me before 5:55 pm, Thursday, April 11.

Last updated April 10, 2002