Abstract
Excerpt: Over a hundred years ago, Veatch (1906) noted that “it is possible for a rain to produce instantly a change in the water level in wells and an increase in groundwater outflow without contributing a drop to the groundwater.” The response of confined aquifers to loading from precipitation may in some circumstances allow the aquifers to be used as geological weighing lysimeters to quantify changes in water storage in overlying strata (e.g., Van der Kamp and Maathius 1991; Sophocleous et al. 2006; Bardsley and Campbell 2007). Nevertheless, there are remarkably few recent studies that have documented the effects of surface loading on confined aquifers and consider its effects, significance, and implications on groundwater management.