DYNAMICS OF GROUNDWATER MOUNDS - ANALYTICAL SOLUTIONS AND INTEGRAL CHARACTERISTICS

Transient water table systems under the influence of decaying groundwa ter mounds are studied in terms of the Dupuit-Forcheimer approximation , its linearization and linear potential theory. Parabolic mounds spre ading and shrinking due to gravity and evapotranspiration are derived from the general class defined by Polubarinova-Kochina (1945). The pen etration curves are calculated as characteristics of the water table r esponse at prescribed observation wells. The Polubarinova-Kochina solu tions for rectangular mounds are used to derive isochrones, a ''restin g lens'' into which a mound transforms, and a distortion picture of re ference volumes. These characteristics are obtained from numerical sol ution of a system of ordinary differential equation. The plume illustr ating the advective spread of a contaminant from a reference area is c omputed as a composition of all path lines passing through this area.