Definition
Wells are excavations into the Earth for developing groundwater, oil, brine, gas, and engineering geology operations (Driscoll 1986; Hunt 2005).
Water wells are dug, driven, bored, or drilled into the saturated zone of water-bearing formations (aquifers) to extract groundwater for drinking and irrigation (Barrocu 2014; Campbell and Lehr 1973).
Shallow water wells are excavated into loose and soft rocks by hand, or mechanically, mainly in unconfined aquifers. They are rarely deeper than 50–60 m, normally with a circular section of 1–3.5 m in diameter. Their walls are supported by masonry or a precast concrete ring lining to prevent collapsing. The lining often extends above the ground to prevent people from falling into the well and to reduce contamination.
In dug wells, if the water table becomes lower due to abstraction the well can be deepened or new wells can be dug (Fig. 1). In the ancient past, water was brought to the surface by buckets lowered into the well with a...
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Angelakis AN, Chiotis E, Eslamian S, Weingartner H (eds) (2016) Underground aqueducts handbook. CRC Press/Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton. ISBN:9781498748308
Barrocu G (2014) Chapter 12, groundwater hydrology: saturation zone. In: Eslamian S (ed) Handbook of engineering hydrology, fundamentals, and applications, vol 1. CRC Press/Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton, pp 221–249. ISBN:13: 978-1-4665-5244-9 (eBook – PDF)
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Hunt RE (2005) Geotechnical engineering investigation handbook, 2nd ed. CRC Press/Taylor & Francis Group, Roca Raton/London/New York/Singapore. ISBN:13-978-0-8493-2182-5
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Barrocu, G., Eslamian, S., Ostad-Ali-Askari, K., Singh, V.P. (2018). Wells. In: Bobrowsky, P.T., Marker, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Engineering Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73568-9_297
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