AQUIFER PUMPING TESTS
Site Specific Testing to Inform your Project Design and Consenting Requirements
Aquifer Pumping Tests
Aquifer Pumping Tests are fundamental tools for characterising groundwater conditions at below-ground construction sites.
Reliable groundwater control design depends on accurate characterisation of subsurface conditions. Without reliable data on aquifer properties and groundwater behaviour, designs are based on assumptions that can significantly underestimate risk and cost.
OGI delivers the design, management and analysis of pumping test programmes that generate the quantitative hydrogeological data needed to underpin a robust groundwater control strategy.
What are the Risks?
Unreliable Design Assumptions
Groundwater control systems sized on assumed rather than measured permeability values can fail to achieve the required drawdown, leaving excavations unsafe and construction programmes at risk.
Regulatory Exposure
Environmental regulators require demonstrable evidence of groundwater conditions when assessing abstraction licence and environmental permit applications. Poor applications lead to delays, requests for further information, or refusal.
Unquantified Third-Party Risk
Without a measured understanding of aquifer properties and connectivity, the potential for dewatering operations to affect neighbouring abstractions or cause nearby settlement cannot be reliably assessed.
What We Do
OGI delivers the design and management of pumping test programmes to meet the specific data requirements of each project.
We scope each programme around generating the hydrogeological parameters required to support groundwater control design, regulatory submissions, and third-party impact assessments.
Where pumping test data forms part of a regulatory application, OGI designs and delivers programmes that comply with all relevant requirements from the outset, ensuring the data collected can support the submission without the need for repeat testing.
The greatest value is achieved when pumping tests are planned and managed early, so the programme can be tailored to answer critical hydrogeological questions before groundwater control design begins.
Aquifer Pumping Test Services
We provide end-to-end management of test pumping programmes across all project stages:
– Test Pumping Programme Design
– Contractor Procurement and Management
– On-Site Monitoring and Quality Assurance
– Hydrogeological Analysis and Interpretation
– Integration with Groundwater Control Design
Pumping Test Analysis
OGI uses industry-standard methods to analyse pumping test data based on the hydrogeological setting. We apply radial flow solutions for confined aquifers, while using curve-fitting and numerical methods for unconfined or complex environments.
Where conventional analytical methods are insufficient, we integrate data into numerical groundwater models. All outputs include documented assumptions and limitations, ensuring parameter uncertainty is transparently factored into groundwater control designs.
Key Outputs
Specification Drawings
A set of technical drawings providing borehole construction, well development, and instrumentation specifications for use by the specialist drilling and pumping test contractor during programme execution.
Pumping Test Analysis Report
A technical document setting out the objectives, design basis, methodology and analysis for the pumping test programme.
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