HR: 16:00h
AN: G14A-03    [Abstracts]
TI: InSAR Reveals Aquifer System Response in Heavily Pumped Basins in Nevada: A Tool for Groundwater Resource Management
AU: * Bell, J W
EM: jbell@unr.edu
AF: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557 United States
AU: Amelung, F
EM: famelung@rsmas.miami.edu
AF: RSMAS, University of Miami, Miami, FL 33149 United States
AU: Bianchi, M
AF: Tele-Rilevamento Europa, Via Vittoria Colonna, 7, Milano, 20149 Italy
AU: Ferretti, A
AF: Tele-Rilevamento Europa, Via Vittoria Colonna, 7, Milano, 20149 Italy
AU: Novali, F
AF: Tele-Rilevamento Europa, Via Vittoria Colonna, 7, Milano, 20149 Italy
AU: Bawden, G W
AF: U.S. Geological Survey, 6000 J Street, Sacramento, CA 95819 United States
AB: Owing to the arid climate and a rapidly growing population, many pumped groundwater basins in Nevada are experiencing declining water levels. We have been conducting InSAR studies in selected groundwater basins of Nevada in order to better understand the physical character and response of these heavily pumped aquifer systems. Our results for three basins in southern Nevada illustrate how InSAR can provide a powerful tool for characterizing aquifer system response that can be used for groundwater resource management and subsidence hazard mitigation. In Las Vegas Valley, conventional InSAR using ERS-1 and -2 data has allowed us to define the spatial dimensions of the compacting aquifer system and demonstrate that faults within the basin fill strongly control the location and amount of aquifer system response. InSAR also shows that the principal zones of aquifer system response in Las Vegas are spatially offset from the sites of heaviest pumping. In the Virgin Valley, InSAR reveals that the aquifer system response has migrated as new production wells have come on-line, and the results are being utilized to manage pumping and to locate new well sites outside of the zone of aquifer compaction. In Pahrump Valley where subsidence has resulted in extensive structural damage, InSAR has revealed a relation between aquifer compaction and earth fissuring that will provide a hazard identification and mitigation tool. In addition to the application of conventional InSAR, we have conducted preliminary studies in the use of the permanent scatterer (PS) methodology to examine time-series and range-change trends. Using 50 ERS-1 and -2 scenes and all currently available Envisat scenes, we have identified more than 15 million PS targets in Las Vegas. Using the PS method, we are able to resolve surface motion at a resolution of about 0.5 mm/yr on individual targets. We believe this methodology has great potential for extracting detailed aquifer response measurements that can be used for directly determining hydraulic properties such as aquifer system storage coefficients. (Supported by NASA Grant NAG13-02017.)
DE: 1243 Space geodetic surveys
DE: 1829 Groundwater hydrology
SC: Geodesy [G]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly