Knowledge about the hydraulics of water wells is important to optimize their energy efficiency. By minimizing head losses around the well, energy consumption and ageing processes can be limited, thereby prolonging the well’s service life. The contribution of the individual components to total head loss (drawdown) in the well is analyzed in detail. The single most important contributor to drawdown is commonly the aquifer. Its hydraulic conductivity can only be improved slightly through development. The second most important contributor is the formation of a wellbore skin layer. This occurs if no proper well development was performed after drilling; the layer contains remnants of drilling-fluid additives or mobilized fine aquifer particles. The head loss caused by groundwater flow in the gravel pack, through the screen slots and inside the well, was found to be small. Thus, well development is the most important measure to influence well performance and energy efficiency. For longer operation times and pumped volumes, the energy gains outperform the cost for the development.

Application of the gravity-driven regional groundwater flow (GDRGF) concept to the hydrogeologically complex thick carbonate system of the Transdanubian Range (TR), Hungary, is justified based on the principle of hydraulic continuity. The GDRGF concept informs about basin hydraulics and groundwater as a geologic agent. It became obvious that the effect of heterogeneity and anisotropy on the flow pattern could be derived from hydraulic reactions of the aquifer system. The topography and heat as driving forces were examined by numerical simulations of flow and heat transport. Evaluation of groups of springs, in terms of related discharge phenomena and regional chloride distribution, reveals the dominance of topography-driven flow when considering flow and related chemical and temperature patterns. Moreover, heat accumulation beneath the confined part of the system also influences these patterns. The presence of cold, lukewarm and thermal springs and related wetlands, creeks, mineral precipitates, and epigenic and hypogenic caves validates the existence of GDRGF in the system. Vice versa, groups of springs reflect rock–water interaction and advective heat transport and inform about basin hydraulics. Based on these findings, a generalized conceptual GDRGF model is proposed for an unconfined and confined carbonate region. An interface was revealed close to the margin of the unconfined and confined carbonates, determined by the GDRGF and freshwater and basinal fluids involved. The application of this model provides a background to interpret manifestations of flowing groundwater in thick carbonates generally, including porosity enlargement and hydrocarbon and heat accumulation.

A geographic information system (GIS)-based water-budget framework has been developed to study the climate-change impact on regional groundwater recharge, and it was applied to the Southern Hills aquifer system of southwestern Mississippi and southeastern Louisiana, USA. The framework links historical climate variables and future emission scenarios of climate models to a hydrologic model, HELP3, to quantify spatiotemporal potential recharge variations from 1950 to 2099. The framework includes parallel programming to divide a large amount of HELP3 simulations among multiple cores of a supercomputer, to expedite computation. The results show that a wide range of projected potential recharge for the Southern Hills aquifer system resulted from the divergent projections of precipitation, temperature and solar radiation using three scenarios (B1, A2 and A1FI) of the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s Parallel Climate Model 1 (PCM) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab’s (GFDL) model. The PCM model projects recharge change ranging from −33.7 to +19.1 % for the 21st century. The GFDL model projects less recharge than the PCM, with recharge change ranging from −58.1 to +7.1 %. Potential recharge is likely to increase in 2010–2039, but likely to decrease in 2070–2099. Projected recharge is more sensitive to the changes in the projected precipitation than the projected solar radiation and temperature. Uncertainty analysis confirms that the uncertainty in projected precipitation yields more changes in the potential recharge than in the projected temperature for the study area.