Parameter estimation of a multiple aquifer-aquitard system from a single extensometer record: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Abstract

Abstract. The purpose of this investigation is to develop a semi-analytical procedure for quantifying aquifer and aquitard properties from a single extensometer record in lieu of the time-consuming development of more complex numerical models to quantify and constrain these parameter values. Despite a limited 12-year record and the fact that water levels both decline and increase on an annual basis, estimates of both aquifer and aquitard parameters have been reasonably estimated at the Lorenzi extensometer site in Las Vegas Valley, Nevada when compared to the estimates developed numerically. The key factors that allow for accurate estimates of elastic and inelastic skeletal specific storage and hydraulic conductivity of the aquitards and elastic specific storage and hydraulic conductivity of the intervening aquifers is the presence of pumping cycles at multiple frequencies, and measured heads at all the aquifer units covered in the extensometer record and the inherent assumption that the aquitards have identical hydrologic characteristics and are homogeneous and isotropic. This latter assumption is also a usual limitation in numerical modelling of these settings because of the complex temporal head relationships occurring within the aquitards that are rarely, if ever, measured.