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Glossary

Glossary

Anisotropy: The condition in which hydraulic properties of the aquifer are unequal in all directions.

Aquifer: Rock or sediment in a formation, which is saturated and sufficiently permeable to transmit and release water.

Confined Aquifer: A layer of water bearing porous material that is sandwiched between two layers of much less pervious materials.

Discharge: Process by which water leaves the aquifer

Elastic Storativity: Also known as Elastic Early Time Storativity. The volume of water released instantaneously released from storage in an unconfined aquifer when pumping commences. Typically, early time is less than a few hours. In WIDE it is defined as less than one time unit (one hour, one day, one year). Recall that solutions provided in WIDE are independent of time.

Homogeneous aquifer: An aquifer in which hydraulic properties do not vary with space.

Horizontal Hydraulic Conductivity (Kh): The rate at which water flows from one point to another through an anisotropic aquifer along the horizontal plane when the hydraulic gradient between the two points is equal to one.

Hydraulic Conductivity: The rate at which water flows from one point to another through a porous media (e.g. aquifer) when the hydraulic gradient between the two points is equal to one.

Hydraulic Conductivity of a leaky layer: The rate at which water flows from one point to another through a leaky layer when the hydraulic gradient between the two points is equal to one.

Investigation Time: Duration for which the user would like WIDE to estimate drawdown for the specified stress. This may be more than the period for which pumping was carried out.

Isotropic aquifer: An aquifer in which the hydraulic properties are the same along X,Y and Z planes at a location in space.

JAR file: JAR files are a Java ARchive executable format requiring the JRE for operation. Commonly a java application or applet combines multiple files (resources) into a single JAR archive file. The JAR file is a compressed format based on the ZLIB algorithm facilitating in the distribution of applets and applications over the internet.

Java Applet: A special application created using the Java programming language. The application is stored on a web server and uses a Java enabled browser as the host environment.

Java Application: An application created using the Java programming language. Java applications are usually packaged as a single executable jar file, containing all the necessary resources.

Java Plug-in: A plug-in to bypass the browser's Java support and use the complete version of the JRE installed on the computer. This ensure that the applet behaves the same as the application.

Java Runtime Environment (JRE): A runtime environment that provides a Java virtual machine to execute Java applets and applications.

Leaky Aquifer Thickness: The thickness of the leaky layer above a semi confined aquifer.

Recharge: Process by which water reaches the aquifer

Saturated Aquifer Thickness: The thickness of the aquifer in which the voids are filled with water at a pressure greater than the atmospheric.

Semi-confined aquifer: An aquifer confined by a low permeability layer that permits water to leak through. The leaky layer may or may not be saturated. If the leaky layer is saturated, it will act as a storage layer to the semi confined aquifer. Separate solutions are provided in WIDE for semi confined aquifers with leaky layers which are saturated (with storage) and unsaturated (no storage).

Specific Yield: The volume of water an unconfined aquifer releases from storage per unit decline in hydraulic head.

Storativity: The volume of water a confined or a semi confined aquifer releases from storage per unit decline in hydraulic head.

Storativity of the leaky layer (S'): The volume of water a leaky layer releases from storage per unit decline in hydraulic head.

Transmissivity: The product of the hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer and the saturated thickness of the aquifer.

Unconfined Aquifer: An aquifer in which there are no confining beds between the zone of saturation and the surface. Water table aquifer is a synonym.

Vertical Hydraulic Conductivity (Kv): The rate at which water flows from one point to another through an anisotropic aquifer along the vertical plane when the hydraulic gradient between the two points is equal to one.