Grounwater

Depth-to-groundwater data are available on WaterNSW (in csv format) for monitoring sites across New South Wales. This assignment focuses on analysing groundwater level changes and calculating effective porosity using a combination of satellite data and soil moisture modeling.

Data Access Instructions

Depth-to-groundwater data are available from the WaterNSW realtime data website.

Data retrieval steps:

• In the “Groundwater (Telemetered data) section on the left, select “Search”.
• Enter the site code in , then search for the data.
• Choose “download” found in the “Output” options. Select the sampling interval that you require.

Monitoring Site Information

Questions

1. 📈 (2 marks) Plot the time series of depth to groundwater level for each site. Create individual plots showing the temporal variation in groundwater depth for all monitoring locations.

2. 🛰️ (5 marks) Calculate the groundwater change at each of the sites from a combination of satellite data and soil moisture modelling data. Use the results from previous assignment. Consider the spatial resolution limitations and interpolation methods required.

3. 💻 (5 marks) Estimate the specific yield (approximating effective porosity) at each location using .

   S_y \approx n_e = \frac{\Delta S}{\Delta h}

\Delta S is the change in subsurface water storage (from satellite/soil moisture data) and \Delta h is the observed change in groundwater level.

4. 🌍 (5 marks) Produce a spatial map of specific yield over the region (i.e. interpolate between the discrete data points). Use appropriate interpolation techniques to create a continuous surface map showing spatial variation in specific yield across the study region.

Guidelines