Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date

2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Civil Engineering

Committee Chair

Brian Waldron

Committee Member

Scott Schoefernacker

Committee Member

Anzhelika Antipova

Abstract

An extensive study of the water-table aquifer (i.e., shallow aquifer) within Shelby County, Tennessee, was conducted where groundwater elevation data was collected during two water level surveys in the dry (Fall 2020) and wet (Spring 2021) seasons. Water-table surfaces were generated for both seasons using cokriging to observe seasonal differences and identify anomalous water-table depressions, indicative of an underlying aquitard breach. Seasonal differences were attributed to non-coincident control, timing between the survey and when optimum dry (fall) and wet (spring) conditions existed, as observed through comparisons with continuous historical water levels from 12 shallow monitoring wells. Additionally, data from Fall 2020 were compared to previous studies conducted in the Fall of 2005 and 2015 to determine decadal changes in levels and shape of the water table. Decadal differences were attributed to changes in data control, especially among private wells, and climatic changes between years. Higher levels were observed in 2020, while 2015 levels were generally lower than in 2005. A prediction error map was generated from the 2020 dataset to identify areas of the County with high-prediction error (>7.0 m) to offer guidance on where future well control would be prudent.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest.

Notes

Open access

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