THE EAST KENT CHALK AQUIFER DURING THE 1988-92 DROUGHT

Groundwater resources of Chalk aquifers may become depleted during dro ught periods; major causes of this depletion include reductions in the aquifer transmissivity and the interaction between aquifers and river s. In the East Kent aquifer there are certain catchments where difficu lties are encountered in maintaining yields but, in other catchments, drought periods have little effect on the available resources. A mathe matical model is developed to help understand the flow processes withi n the aquifer system, and the model is used to predict the consequence s of possible abstraction scenarios.