Adaptive Control of Ground‐Water Hydraulics

Abstract

In operating a ground‐water management system it is likely the true aquifer response will deviate from the response predicted during the design phase. Efficient operation will require adjustments in operation based on actual system response. The potential of adaptive control for the real‐time management of groundwater hydraulics in the presence of model and parameter uncertainty is demonstrated by an application to target head tracking. Despite uncertainty in the values and spatial distribution of transmissivity, meeting target head levels at selected observation wells by choice of the pumping rates is desirable. Parameter estimation and control are applied sequentially. Head measurements are used to update parameter estimates and modify future pumping choices. It was found that a deterministic approach, with zonation for approximating spatial variability and periodic updating of transmissivity estimates, was capable of meeting the target heads with a reasonable degree of success.