Mapping Groundwater Levels Data, Analysis, and Representation

For the last three years the Department of Geology and Geography at UNC Pembroke has been collecting groundwater data from the Black Creek Aquifer in conjunction with Robeson County Public Utilities. The focus has been on monitoring wells across Robeson County including information on wells drilled specifically for the project as well as existing wells reported by the NCDEQ and USGS. The goal of the project is to measure and model the changes in water level across the county over time and to make this information accessible. Using the existing data, we are currently focusing on creating monthly potentiometric maps representing the groundwater levels in Robeson County over the last three years. The general process for generating the potentiometric surfaces that student workers are following is: 1) collect data records from in-well sensors, 2) generalize the 30 minute interval data to representative monthly values, and 3) derive monthly potentiometric surfaces for the last 36 months. These interpolated surfaces are considered in conjunction with the well hydrographs from the initial data to provide descriptions of the water level variations across the county seasonally and during unique events. In this paper we will discuss the project methods and highlight patterns that are visible in the data.