Hydrology
Hydrology, particularly water flow, whether man-made or weather related, can affect the local environment due to changes in water quality and quantity, hence environmental monitoring is essential.
Silixa’s fibre optic monitoring solutions deliver high-precision distributed-sensing based data that offer vital information that explain water flows and environmental changes.
Subsurface environments are critical not only as water resources but also for energy use including geothermal, CO2 sequestration and Oil & Gas operations.
Temperature offers insight into a variety of physical properties and can be used for flow monitoring and flux quantification in the subsurface and to obtain a detailed understanding of how groundwater and surface water systems interact.
The resolution capabilities and durability of Silixa’s distributed temperature sensors (DTS), the optimized cable designs, and the ease with which these systems are deployed have made the ULTIMA™ DTS and XT−DTS™ families of instruments the industry standard for groundwater applications.
The intelligent Distributed Acoustic Sensor (iDAS™) has enabled seismic characterization in aquifers and hydromechanical monitoring of fractures.
- High resolution and accurate groundwater data
- Borehole and aquifer scale monitoring with multi-kilometer measurement range
- Provides insight into highly heterogeneous environments
- Improve site flow system and contaminant transport conceptual models
- Localize groundwater discharge into surface water bodies
- Monitor discrete fracture flow with industry leading DTS spatial resolution
- Inform and verify groundwater models
Fibre optic distributed temperature sensing (DTS) bridges the gap between aerial infrared techniques that measure only the temperature of the surface or a water body and point sensors that can be installed at depth but have limited spatial coverage. The spatial coverage and ability to install fibre optic cable directly at the surface water – groundwater boundary has enabled DTS to become widely adopted.
DTS has been applied to numerous studies around the globe to locate groundwater discharge into surface water bodies, to quantify groundwater discharge flux, and even to predict the impacts of vegetation on stream temperature to monitor and improve ecosystem health.
Distributed acoustic sensing using iDAS has been applied to quantify the hydromechanical response of individual fractures due to hydraulic stresses.
Detection of nanometre scale processes at all locations in a borehole is a transformative capability for in-situ borehole measurements. By applying at the aquifer scale, iDAS data enables monitoring aquifer heterogeneity and the interconnectivity between wells.
The installation of fibre optic cable enables the ability to collect distributed data in both surface water bodies and wellbores. Whether for a current application or to enable future measurement possibilities, the addition of optical fibre transforms an installation into an array of virtual groundwater sensors.
Silixa’s customised cable solutions can be installed temporarily in open boreholes, permanently into grouted and cemented wellbores, temporarily installed with flexible borehole liners, or integrated into multilevel systems (MLSs) to provide a robust platform for groundwater monitoring.
Downloads
Case study: DTS improves scientific understanding of processes governing melt rates at the Thwaites Glacier
Challenge: providing datasets for conceptual model refinement and predictive and historical model development to improve the scientific understanding of processes governing melt rates in the Antarctic.
Case study: XT-DTS characterizes groundwater inflow areas to help mitigate environmental contamination
Challenge: to localize and characterize groundwater inflow areas at a former mill site to enable site modelling and help mitigate environmental mitigation.
