Improving Water Table Kinematic Conditions With Unsaturated Flow Insights
Jun-Hong Lin, Ying-Fan Lin · Water Resources Research · 2025
DOI 10.1029/2024WR038724Can a water-table condition retain unsaturated-flow physics without another fitting parameter?
The study addresses the specific-yield underestimation that can arise when analytical pumping-test models assume instantaneous gravity drainage.
A pumped unconfined aquifer coupled to the unsaturated zone
A partially penetrating pumping well in an unconfined aquifer, with saturated flow below the water table and moisture storage and flow above it.
Reduce coupled flow to a physically informed water-table condition
A thin-unsaturated-zone reduction retains a gravity-drainage time term and a radial-Laplacian term. When the radial contribution is negligible, the condition returns to the classical kinematic form.
More reliable specific-yield estimates without an extra empirical parameter
Application to pumping tests at the Boise Hydrogeophysical Research Site supports improved drawdown agreement and addresses specific-yield underestimation while retaining analytical tractability.
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