Volume 24 (2018): Issue 3 (December 2018)

The Miechów Trough and the central part of the Carpathian Foredeep in southern Poland have a highly complex geological structure and numerous fault zones. These features play a significant role in hydrogeological conditions of the area. In this area drinking water, medicinal groundwater or thermal groundwater occur, so recognition of their circulations is basic for reasonable groundwater management. In this note, a hydrogeological conceptual model, created for the purpose of regional scale mathematical modelling, is presented. This conceptual model illustrates the geology of the hydrogeological system modelled, as well as hydrogeological conditions and characteristics of groundwater circulation, as determined by tectonics. Typical of the research area is the wide diversity of geological and hydrogeological conditions. The Busko-Zdrój area, a region with a long history of exploitation of medicinal groundwater, presents the best example.

Assessments of the infiltration recharge of groundwater are performed using various methods and on different scales. Infiltration is dependent of climatic factors, aspects of water circulation, as well as on quasi-stationary and variable environmental features of a specific area, which are frequently difficult to determine on the basis of direct measurements or observations. The objective of the present study was to identify factors conditioning recharge of shallow groundwater in selected catchment areas of the Poznań Upland using the WetSpass simulation water balance model with spatially distributed parameters. Our analysis has indicated favourable and unfavourable conditions for recharge of groundwater in the annual period and in both half-year periods, which are the result of mutual relationships between the physical qualities of these catchment areas and their climatic and hydrological characteristics. The results obtained also confirmed the impact of surface runoff and actual evapotranspiration on the spatial distribution of effective infiltration. With soil types and groundwater depth distributions being similar in the catchment areas, changes in relationships between components of water balance are caused by differences in the type of land usage. Application of the WetSpass model has made it possible to arrive at a more accurate assessment of groundwater recharge. The results obtained may be used for erification of recharge areas and values of effective infiltration, set as a boundary condition in groundwater flow models.

During the construction of mathematical models for mapping hydrogeological conditions it is necessary to apply simplifications, both in the geological structure and in hydrogeological parameters used. The present note discusses problems surrounding the mapping of glaciotectonic disturbances that occur in the northern part of Wolin Island (northwest Poland). For this part of the island, a direct outflow of groundwater towards the Baltic Sea basin has been determined on the basis of geophysical survey results. An important feature in the hydrogeological conditions here is the isolation of groundwater from both the Baltic Sea and Szczecin Lagoon by clay with a Cretaceous xenolith. Such a geological structure explains the presence of perched water at considerable heights in zones close to the cliffs, without any significant hydraulic connection with surrounding reservoirs. Hydrogeological conditions of Wolin Island have been modelled using the Visual MODFLOW package v.4.2. In the vertical section, these conditions can be simplified to one aquifer (Pleistocene-Holocene), in which two aquifers can be distinguished. In a large part of the island, these remain in mutual hydraulic contact: layer I – upper, with an unconfined aquifer, and layer II – lower, with a confined aquifer, locally an unconfined one. The schematisation of hydrogeological conditions adopted here has allowed to reproduce present groundwater dynamics in the study area.

During the last nine years, the 133 main groundwater reservoirs in Poland (MGR) have been documented; these were published last year. Some of these are situated in the coastal zone of the southern Baltic Sea. MGR numbers 111 and 112 are in the Gdańsk area and are discussed in the present paper. The study area is situated on the border region of the moraine plateau of the Cashubian Lakeland, the western part of the Vistula River delta plain and the Bay of Gdańsk. The area of the main groundwater reservoir in no. 112 is developed in Quaternary strata and referred to as Żuławy Gdańskie; it comprises predominantly the city of Gdańsk and slightly exceeds 100 km². There is also a Cretaceous aquifer, rich in groundwater resources, which is named MGR no. 111, beneath the Quaternary reservoir mentioned above. The area studied and modelled totalled 364 km², on account of the hydraulic connection between these aquifers. Methods of hydrogeological research, groundwater flow simulations, resources calculation are outlined in the present paper.

The present paper discusses studies related to the preparation of a hydrogeological model of groundwater flow and nitrate transport in an area where a precision farming system is applied. Components of water balance were determined using the UnSat Suite Plus software (HELP model), while the average infiltration rate calculated for the study area equalled 20 per cent. The Visual MODFLOW software was used for the purpose of modelling in the saturated zone. Hydrogeological parameters of the model layers, inclusive of hydraulic conductivity, were defined on the basis of results of column tests that were carried out under laboratory conditions (column experiment). Related to the dose of mineral nitrogen used in precision fertilisation (80 kg N/ha), scenarios of the spread of nitrates in the soil-water environment were worked out. The absolute residual mean error calculated for nitrate concentrations obtained from laboratory and modelling studies equalled 0.188 mg/L, the standard error of the estimate equalling 0.116 mg/L. Results obtained were shown graphically in the form of hydroisohypse maps and nitrate isolines. Conclusions were drawn regarding the possibility of using numerical modelling techniques in predicting transport and fate of nitrates from fertilisers applied in precision agriculture systems.

Areas of intense mine drainage that are subjected to numerical modelling require the construction of a complex model structure that will properly reflect actual conditions. This paper presents the process and results of constructing such a structure for the Olkusz Zinc and Lead Ore Mining Area, an area situated in a cone of depression the extent of which reaches 500 km². This size range calls for a selection of appropriate external boundaries, properly separated from these of the mine drainage area. The complex geological structure of the Olkusz area, associated with considerable variation in the thickness of rock formations, discontinuities of rock levels and occurrence of numerous faults, must be schematised so that calculation layers can be identified. The faults in the study area have to be reflected in the regional model structure, although only those faults that actually affect groundwater flows should be selected. The model structure needs to include detailed recognition and reflection of hydraulic contacts between aquifer levels, together with a selection of hydrogeological parameters that are different for particular formations. Only a complex structure built in such a manner may be the foundation of further model studies.

In the paper, a comparison of the efficiency of riverbank treatments is outlined for the Krajkowo well field, where different methods of water abstraction are used. The water is extracted from 29 vertical wells that are located at a distance of 60–80 m from the channel of the River Warta and from a horizontal well with radial drains located 5 m below the bottom of the river. The results of a two-year water-quality investigation indicate that the water quality in both types of abstraction system is influenced by the quality of river water. The water quality observed in the horizontal well is closely similar to that of the river water, with similar concentrations of sulphates, nitrates and micropollutants, but a reduction in bacteriological contamination and plankton is clearly seen. The reduction in contaminants is mainly the result of physical processes, such as mechanical entrapment of suspended material and colloids as well as bacteria and plankton. In the vertical wells, the influence of contamination from river water is also visible, but the reduction in contamination is more significant, especially in cases of bacteria, plankton, micropollutants and nitrates, and is determined by both physical and chemical processes, such as sorption, dissolution, red-ox processes and denitrification. The present research shows that river water treatment is more effective in the case of vertical wells. The most favourable distance of a well from the channel of the river, from the perspective of water quality, is 150–200 m, which corresponds to a residence time of about six months.