A numerical investigation to illustrate the consequences of hydraulic connections between granular and fractured-rock aquifers

Natural or artificial hydraulic connections between a granular aquifer in contact with a fractured-rock aquifer can have significant physical and chemical impacts at both a local and a regional scale. In this study, numerical simulations are conducted in order to illustrate the hydrogeological consequences of such hydraulic relationships. The numerical investigation, based on a conceptual model, focuses on the effects of the hydraulic connections when conducting a pumping test in a well that is set into a granular confined aquifer overlying a fractured-rock aquifer which presents a few fractures directly connected to the granular aquifer. It is illustrated that when interpreting the pumping test with the conventional methods consisting of plotting the drawdown versus time, a bias is introduced on the estimation of the transmissivity of the granular aquifer due to groundwater flowing from the fractured-rock aquifer via connecting fractures. However, it is underlined that plotting drawdown log-derivative versus time helps to diagnose the existence of these hydraulic relationships and therefore avoids committing a bias on the transmissivity estimation of the granular aquifer. Numerical simulation results also illustrate that hydraulic connections between the two aquifers can have significant impacts on the hydrogeochemical signature of the granular aquifer under investigation.