A new analytical solution of water table response to tidal fluctuations and its application to estimate aquifer properties at the Niijima Island, Japan

Abstract

A perturbation solution of the Boussinesq equation under the boundary condition of multi-tide at the coast was derived for evaluating the hydraulic parameters of phreatic aquifer from tidally induced fluctuation of water table. Then, the solution was applied to estimate the hydraulic parameters of the Shiro-mama formation at the Niijima Island, Japan, by fitting the solution to the results of continuous measurements of water table fluctuations. The estimated hydraulic transmissivities from both the amplitude and the phase were comparable and consistent with the results of analyses based on Dupuit-Ghyben-Herzberg model, suggesting that the obtained values, i.e., 0.12−1.7 m²/s were reasonable.