Townley, L.R., and Davidson, M.R. (1988), Definition of a capture zone for shallow water table lakes, Journal of Hydrology, 104, 53-76.

Lake-aquifer interaction is studied with the aim of developing simple relationships between easily measurable geometrical and aquifer parameters and the bulk behaviour of the flow system. Attention is focussed on shallow flow-through lakes which receive groundwater along the up-gradient shoreline and discharge lake water along the down-gradient shoreline. Although the flow system is physically three-dimensional, two idealised two-dimensional geometries, in plan and in vertical section, are studied in detail. The resulting potential flow problems are solved using a boundary integral approach, based on a Green's function chosen to satisfy desired homogeneous boundary conditions on a semi-infinite strip. Results are presented for circular and elliptical lakes in plan and for lakes so shallow that they are adequately represented in vertical section by a line at the surface. The size of an upstream capture zone, in which all groundwater flow eventually passes through the body of the lake, is defined in terms of the size of the lake, inter-lake spacing, aquifer saturated thickness, an anisotropy ratio and the ratio of downstream to upstream hydraulic gradients. Even in cases where the net groundwater inflow to a lake is zero, it is shown that a substantial throughflow can occur.

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Copyright © 2005 by Lloyd Townley
Last revised: 6 May 2005