Airborne Geophysics for Mapping Groundwater New Delhi – April Dr. Sanjay Rana – Parsan Gary Tipper – SkyTEM UAE

SkyTEM - The company Established in 2004, spin-off from Aarhus University About 45 people today Head office in Denmark Large R&D group Sector focus: Geotechnical Engineering Mineral Exploration Oil and Gas Water and Environment Partner with Parsan in 2015

Company structure

suncor Engineered specifically to map aquifers

Transmitted EM signal

Received EM signal

Resistivity Values

SkyTEM resistivity maps

MultiMoment SkyTEM508 Layered earth Inversion of low moment alone Inversion of high moment alone Joint inversion of low and high moment

The National Groundwater Mapping ( ) in Denmark Scope: Delineation of the groundwater resource, its quality and natural protection Generation of action plans How: SkyTEM mapping Geophysical interpretation Drilling campaigns Hydrological samples Hydrological modelling 11

Groundwater Mapping Process Overview and Planning Background Research and defining plan/budget Create initial model Conceptual model New Geophysical data Airborne and ground Hydrogeologic FrameworkDrilling & ground truth Water Management 3-D modeling

A 6” borehole represents less than 1 millionth of an acre Paleochannel at 120 m depth 7 km X 4 km Denmark

Correlation of drill holes and well logs with TEM

horizontal section Natural Resources Department Nebraska 15 Miles X 12 miles

SkyTEM Aquifer Mapping

Data courtesy of Lower Platte South NRD and XRI Geophysics

12 kms X 7 kms Data courtesy of NE Lower Platte South NRD and XRI Geophysics 50 m bgl

12 kms X 7 kms 150 m bgl Data courtesy of NE Lower Platte South NRD and XRI Geophysics

12 kms X 7 kms 250 m bgl Data courtesy of NE Lower Platte South NRD and XRI Geophysics

25 kms 35 kms

World Bank Aquium – HP-II project MoWR – CGWB – NGRI

“The SkyTEM surveys were conducted over six hydrogeologically divergent areas with the objective to establish the suitability of heliborne surveys for mapping aquifers on a regional basis and to develop strategy to upscale the approach for nationwide aquifer mapping”. “The project was executed with the support of the CGWB/MoWR, Government of India under the World Bank funded HP-II project. The CSIR-NGRI conducted 13,800 line kms of HeliTEM and HeliMAG surveys on an experimental basis over the six areas”. “SkyTEM data were supported by a number of ground geophysical surveys including ground TEM, Vertical Electrical soundings (VES), electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and focused drill holes.” “The integration of results from the heliborne and ground surveys are used to generate database using convenient grid size as small as 50m x 50m, to the proposed National Aquifer Grid (NAG) of 2 km x 2 km for the desired aquifer groundwater management plan”. Reference courtesy of NGRI.

ABQHR – 527 square kms near Patna in Bihar natural arsenic contamination in top 50 meters AQDRT – 700 square kms in desert of Rajasthan near Ramgarh where groundwater salinity is a concern.

AQTND – 538 square kms in Lower Vellar in coastal Tamil Nadu. Coastal salinity intrusion. AQRAJ – 600 square kms Dausa District Rajasthan. Issues with natural contamination, inland salinity, and over- exploitation.

AQKAR – 375 square kms in Tumkir District of Kanartaka. Groundwater occurrences in fracture zones. Flouride contamination and overexploitation. AQMAH – 400 square kms located near Nagpur in Maharashtra. Basalt traps underlain by sediments.

Communications and Community Involvement Knowledge Transfer Technology – Operations – Interpretation Develop relationships with local Universities Mentor geophysical interns and graduate students

Thank You Fly First, Drill Later