It is depend of the pressure

It depends on soil texture (the size of the soil particles), soil structure (the arrangement of the soil particles), soil moisture, pressures and vegetación cover.

An easy and rough method for testing it (just a first step):

http://www.fao.org/docrep/S8684E/s8684e0a.htm

There is usually some delay, because water from precipitation contributes to surface retention and soil moisture first. Then we observe subsurface flow and finally ground water flow, if any. If it rained heavily last time, then the delay is relatively short. If we observed the drought for a long time, then the retention and soil moisture are rather poor and the delay is larger.

Considering that the area shows no difference with the porosity & permeability of the soil and also of the sub-surface material, the infiltration rate will be the same whether the source of water is rainfall or river water.

Of course, other than the permeability, amount of water recharging groundwater through rainfall depends on the intensity & duration of rainfall; soil moisture; vegetation; slope; etc.

I totaly agree with Dr. N B Narasimha Prasad answer.

Well,

In addition to the recommended appreciated above-mentioned answers , I want to add some notes: Intake of water in the aerated zone is either by infiltration into the soil cover or, on bare rock surfaces, by infiltration into intergranular pores (as in sandstone), fissures and joints (as in igneous rocks or quartzite), or dissolution conduits and cavities (limestone, dolomite, gypsum, rock salt). Only pores and fissures that are interconnected, or communicate, are effective to infiltration. Water infiltration in a sandy soil may be described as water movement in a homogeneous granular medium. Water descends in this setting in downward-moving fronts, or in a piston-like flow. Measurements of tritium and other contaminants reveal that such piston flows proceed at velocities of a few centimeters to a few meters a year. This velocity depends on the porosity of the soil, the degree of pore interconnection, the amount and mode of distribution of local precipitation, and drainage conditions. In contrast to the sponge-type flow, recharge into the ground is often rapid, through conduits and zones of preferred transmissivity. Examples of such conduits are open desiccation cracks, old desiccation cracks that have been filled up with coarse material, living and decayed roots, animal holes or bioturbations, and gravel-packed channels of buried streambeds. Karstic terrains provide extreme examples of recharge via conduits. In most cases water descends through the aerated zone in a combined mode, that is, through intergranular pores and through conduits that cross the granular medium.

Sincerely to all.

Well, it depends on what type of aquifer you are studying. Depending on the geology of an area and topography, rain water can recharge directly your aquifer (called water table aquifer, no confining geologic unit between the surface and the aquifer, usually shallow). If you are studying confined aquifers (deeper, separated from surface with several clay of fine particles layers), then water may not reach the aquifer or with much more delay. Remember that water flow usually go though the fastest layers, with less resistance, just like electricity in wires. So if there is a slope, rainwater may not recharge your local aquifer but another one further. It will also depend on your soil, whether it is dry when the rain event occurs or not, and also the soil type. For example if your soil is a "mud type", with clays and fines, delay will be much greater than in a pure sand soil that will act more like a pipe than a slowing unit for water percolating. For shallow aquifers delay can be in days, for deep deep aquifers it can reach thousands of years to recharge.

Hi Muhammad,

As most people mentioned there will be delays in time. If you mentioned your area in particular it would be helpful.

I just want to add one thing. If you calculate the Infiltration from water balance models, you have to make sure to correct the infiltration values by reducing the Interflow (the portion of the infiltration that goes back to the rivers through seepage and other forms of flow). Interflow don't contribute to the groundwater recharge, they flow and join the surface water systems back from the groundwater domain. I'm currently doing a local scale groundwater model in Ethiopia (Upper Blue Nile basin) and incurred Interflow values of around 30-50% of the total infiltration for my basin.

Thanks!

Of course, but it depends on what you want to know. When water infiltrates soil it will displace the water in the soil and so the wetting from will advance further than the depth of water (I) divided by the final water volumetric content (Tf) would suggest. If preferential flow occurs then some of the surface applied water may penetrate deeper. If the initial water volumetric content is known (Ti) then the position of the wetting front can be estimated by L = I/(Tf-Ti). The new water front (Li = I/Tf). Drainage and redistribution will result in these fronts moving deeper into the soil and if the "field capacity" water content is known then, as the volumes should equate the depth when field capacity is reached can be estimated.

If the depth to the water table is known and the initial, final water and field capacity contents are know the depth (Ig) of water required to reach the water (wetting front or new water) can be estimated. If the surface flux is known (J) then the time to reach the water table for the wetting front or new water can be estimated. These values will only be approximate as dispersion will occur and smear out the piston front.

Hope this helps.

Freeman

In lumped parameter conceptual models "infiltration" spans rainfall entering lumped conceptual storage that's partitioned between ET and percolation. In a soil column we think of infiltration as the movement of water from the surface to the subsurface, subject to capillary demand from micropores and darcy flow through macropores, depending on soil moisture. In high resolution (15 min. - 1-cm) "continuous" simulations of water movement through a 1-m soil column, we find a healthy soil with a dense active root zone (20 cm depth) can effectively infiltrate and evapotranspire most of the rainfall during the growing season. Aquifer recharge (i.e. movement of free water through a saturated soil column) occurs during the dormant season (when soil water remains very close to field capacity due to lack of ET) during which the full soil column is more easily approaches saturation during storms.

These soil dynamics along with the seasonality we see in the eastern US Mid-Atlantic climate can produce the isotopic signature of the "Two Water Worlds" hypothesis - in which the water used by plants is isotopically distinct from the water moving in groundwater. I.e. something that our lumped parameter models cannot produce (by construction).

As has been mentioned previously, water infiltrated into the subsurface can only percolate downward to the water table after the soil profile has reached field capacity. So, in trying to determine how much time it would take for water to enter the subsurface and eventually reach the water table, the most important factors to consider are (1) antecedent soil moisture conditions and (2) thickness and permeability of the unsaturated zone. Of course, other elements to consider relate to the land cover of the study area - - uptake of soil/subsurface water by roots in a vegetated area could retard (add travel time to) the percolation of subsurface water to the water table.

I would like to appreciate the above-mentioned answers. Yes, there is always delay between the infiltration of surface water and precipitation to aquifer, which is depends on the geologic formation i.e. soil type, soil texture, structure – determine the permeability (the connection of micro and macro pore space), the depth of aquifer, residual moisture content in the soil, fracture in the case of consolidated aquifers; topography – determine the fraction of runoff and infiltration from precipitation; rainfall intensity (intensive rainfall contribute more to the runoff), interception (vegetation cover). The retention time in the unsaturated zone and the volume of recharge relative to precipitation is a function of the above-mentioned factors.

As already mentioned (Bayam Hussien), the delay between rainfall and groundwater level uplift depends mostly on the hydrogeological context.

In a karst aquifer directly exposed to rainfall (with a karren-like landscape), infiltration is very quick and the aquifer's reaction time is counted in hours. The floods of the underground rivers that drain this type of aquifer are sometimes so brutal that explorers can find themselves trapped in a few hours (this happened to me in Spain).

On the other hand, in an unconfined sandy or sandstone aquifer, with an aerated zone a few tens of metres thick, the reaction time is usually counted in months: after a dry season, the first rains only saturate the soil and the rise of the piezometric level only begins 50 to 100 days later.

Finally, in a large confined sandy aquifer, the seasonal "rain signal" is sometimes so damped that it is no longer measurable. It does not mean that there is no infiltration.

In addition to all the good information provided above by other users, I would suggest to read the two following reference papers, which actually dealt with the "delay" you're talking about.

• Neuman, S. P. (1975). Analysis of pumping test data from anisotropic unconfined aquifers considering delayed gravity response. Water Resources Research, 11(2), 329-342.
• Moench, A. F. (1997). Flow to a well of finite diameter in a homogeneous, anisotropic water table aquifer. Water Resources Research, 33(6), 1397-1407.
• [along with this]: Moench, A. F. (1998). Correction to “Flow to a well of finite diameter in a homogeneous, anisotropic water table aquifer” by Allen F. Moench. Water Resources Research, 34(9), 2431-2432.

But as many have already written, above, there is no unique answer to such a problem, since we're dealing with nature's complexity (notably in terms of GW flow processes and heterogeneity of hydraulic properties), and looking into the problem at a rather local scale, ... if we understood you well.

The question here is "whether there will be a delay between infiltration of surface water and precipitation to aquifers (groundwater)". The rate of infiltration depends on the sub-surface geologic formation. If that is the case, whether river water or rain water, how there can be any change in infiltration rate in a given area ?? I strongly feel that there can not be any difference in the infiltration rate, just because the source of recharge water is river water or rain water (precipitation). As already mentioned, the infiltration rate depends on hydraulic properties of the sub-surface material, and not on the source of recharge water.

Yes, there is a difference between surface water infiltration and pluvial infiltration. Infiltration process of continuous surface runoff is hydrodynamic process occurred under saturated soil crust (vadous zone) . Pluvial infiltration is a vertical movement of rainwater after the soil crust has been saturated. The time required to saturated the water crust is the delay time. It depends on soil texture and applied head of infiltrated water. Please, why do you want to know?

Informative.

The geological formations are categorized, in general, into two sets as groundwater reservoirs and nonreservoirs without any distinction within the reservoir category. Porous medium is adopted as the main groundwater reservoir and different geological layers are grouped into aquifers, aquicludes, and aquitards. Subsequently, depending on the geological layers' configuration, groundwater recharge and pressure type aquifers are further classified as unconfined, confined, and leaky and perch aquifers. For groundwater assessment and calculation, basic necessary quantities, namely, porosity, specific yield and retention, hydraulic conductivity, transmissivity, and storativity are presented in a practical manner with applications. Basic groundwater flow law, Darcy's law, is presented as it is available in classical literature in addition to nonlinear flow laws and hence the validity of the most important parameter, transmissivity, is explained in detail. Groundwater balance differential equations are derived with scientific, philosophical and logical explanations separately for confined and unconfined aquifers. Practical presentations of water-budget equation are presented for various input, output, and storage change possibilities.

Thanks for everyone who answer my question. I need to know how long that after an aquifer is out of water can be full of water as usual. Assuming there is precipitation and infiltration from the closest rivers.

Well,

Amount of aquifer storage(m3)= Storage coefficient x aquifer volume(m3).

Time of replenishment(day) = Amount of aquifer water storage(m3) / Recharge rate (m3/day) of both precipitation and river infiltration.

Sincerely

Thank you my dear Muhamad Khairul Bahri and Ahmed Mahdi

Dr. Muhamad, whenever wells are pumped, we try to determine the time required for full recovery such that pumping schedule is prepared. As Dr. Bayan has explained, the time required for re-couperation depends on transmissivity or hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer.

To follow up on the answer of Dr. Prasad, I'd like to add that it would be a good idea, in my view, to first understand how an aquifer behaves during and then after a pumping test, i.e. at the recovery stage. To do so, I here recommend to read this small but very nice paper from well-know authors in the field of quantitative hydrogeology:

• Neville, C. J. and van der Kamp, G. (2012), Using Recovery Data to Extend the Effective Duration of Pumping Tests. Groundwater, 50: 804-807. doi:10.1111/j.1745-6584.2011.00906.x

Yes Dr. Marc, you are very right in suggesting pumping test and observation of rate of water flow into the well during the recovery phase (recouperation of water) to get the ultimate answer with respect to rate of water flow through an aquifer medium.

A main idea behind knowing which is faster, the infiltration of surface water or that of rainfall to an aquifer, has been in between the lines by some of the comments above. It would simply depends on the degree of saturation of the granular pores of the sediment or that of the fractures. Note that the hydraulic conductivity is saturation dependent.

Perhaps you would find it useful to read:

Stephens, DB. 1996. Vadose Zone Hydrology. ISBN 0-87371-432-6

Again, when doing Aquifer Tests (former pumping test), it is recommended to carry out parallel Electrical Conductivity (EC) and Temperature measurements to those of drawdown with extraction time. If the infiltrated water is the one that is producing related effects on the test, it will be manifested by its temperature and EC. Some examples are stated in the following paper:

Huizar-Alvarez, R; Carrillo-Rivera, JJ; Angeles–Serrano, G Hergt, T y A Cardona, 2004. Chemical response to groundwater extraction southeast of México City. Hydrogeology Journal 12(436-450). DOI: 10.1007/s10040-004-0343-3; SSN: 1431-2174

Do get from Mexico saludos,jjoel carrillor

Yes, depending on the composition of the rocks that overlie the aquifer, the resident time of water infiltration varies.

No , infiltration process instantaneously begins after the surface water is applied on soil crust. The infiltration potential reaches steady state condition when the infiltrated water be in contact with the groundwater.

Infiltration depends on the geologic units of formations above and below the aquifers and the transit time of percolation also depends on the degree of saturation as well as the connectivity of the pores, which are all geologic dependent.