Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2017KY269B

Predictive hydrologic and hazard modeling of injection well density and usage in urban karst aquifers

Institute: Kentucky
Year Established: 2017 Start Date: 2017-03-01 End Date: 2018-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $4,936 Total Non-Federal Funds: $10,000

Principal Investigators: Jason Polk

Project Summary: The purpose of this research is to use a high-resolution sampling approach to study Class V injection wells to ascertain particular aquifer parameters, which will serve as inputs into a hydrodynamic model for flood prediction. In the City of Bowling Green, KY, the use of injection wells has gone mostly unregulated for decades, with an estimated 1,300-plus wells installed since the 1970's to promote drainage and allow urbanization and development to occur without causing additional flooding problems. We propose to examine the impacts of stormwater injection wells under variable precipitation and hydrologic conditions, with research objectives to: 1) characterize the volume of recharge entering the wells in a defined urban karst basin; 2) determine at high-resolution the seasonal and storm influences on well volume inputs/outputs; 3) measure the discharge of drainage basin final output; and 4) use enterprise GIS to develop a model to quantify the impact of injection wells on recharge, responsiveness, and flooding in the system based on well siting and characterization.