Evaluation and Modeling of Groundwater Supply in Arbuckle-simpson Aquifer, Oklahoma

Abstract

This research concerns the decreasing water level in Arbuckle-Simpson Aquifer and low discharge from springs in the aquifer. The purpose of the study was to predict the hydraulic head in the aquifer and impact of pumping on the Aquifer for groundwater management. Three different conceptual approaches were used to simulate the groundwater flow in the aquifer by integrating the data on GIS platform and using FEFLOW groundwater flow model. Modeling approaches, equivalent continuum model, discrete fracture model, and dual fracture model simulated the hydraulic head values for pumping wells in the aquifer. The difference in hydraulic head values ranged from 2 to 20 m. The simulated results did not indicate any significant decrease in water level in the aquifer for normal pumping rates for next 30 years with current pumpage in the aquifer. However, higher pumping in the future may cause decline of water level over the entire aquifer. The rate of decrease of hydraulic head would depend upon the assumed variations in actual transmissivity and other parameters governing water level in the aquifer