Question

A confined aquifer with a uniform saturated thickness of 10 m has hydraulic conductivity of \(10^{-2}\) cm/s. Considering a steady flow, the transmissivity of the aquifer in m\(^2\)/day is ______ (rounded off to one decimal place).

Hint:

Always convert conductivity units first. A handy shortcut: \(1\,\text{cm/s} = 864\,\text{m/day}\). Thus \(10^{-2}\,\text{cm/s} = 8.64\,\text{m/day}\).

Answer 1

Step 1: Formula for transmissivity.
For a confined aquifer, \[ T = K\,b \] where \(K\) is hydraulic conductivity and \(b\) is saturated thickness. Step 2: Convert \(K\) to m/day.
Given \(K = 10^{-2}\ \text{cm/s} = 10^{-2}\times 10^{-2}\ \text{m/s} = 10^{-4}\ \text{m/s}\).
Convert to m/day: \[ K = 10^{-4}\ \text{m/s} \times 86400\ \text{s/day} = 8.64\ \text{m/day}. \] Step 3: Compute transmissivity.
With \(b = 10\ \text{m}\): \[ T = K b = 8.64\ \text{m/day} \times 10\ \text{m} = 86.4\ \text{m}^2/\text{day}. \] Final Answer:
\[ \boxed{86.4\ \text{m}^2/\text{day}} \]