The soil in this field is a heavy clay soil of Cambisols group, and there has not been any dry periods flow to suggest groundwater ingress. Despite this there is likely ingress of water from the soil below the drains (preferential path). I am not sure this should be called 'groundwater' (because it is still far away from the water table) but can anyone suggest a better term?
Technically it is groundwater by all means. Any subsurface water is ground water sensustricto as well as sensulato. Now it may again be classified to a more appropriate nomenclature to be precise. Here it may be acse of vadose zone water, preched water, precolated water or simply seepage / infiltration.
But there can be several water tables eg percolation water that is held up by impermeable or semi permeable soils is called a perched water table. This is typically drained by shallow drainage systems eg, moles, gravel moles, shallow piped drains. Deeper down you can find groundwater, which is typically controlled by pumping or deep open drains. . I always think of the shallow one as being insufficient to drill a well into and the deeper one is typically drilled into for drinking water.
Hi Adebayo, you could still call it groundwater, as groundwater is typically the water that exists below the land surface, as opposed to surface water. Now the zone in the soil above the water table is termed the unsaturated or vadose zone. This zone can also hold water but a lower amount, typically adsorbed to soil particles, contained in narrow gaps between mineral particles and absorbed by organic matter. If soil type is clay, then the unsaturated zone can hold a lot more water than if the soil were sandy.
I would call this subsurface flow. Though ground water is a broadly used term, It is probably worthwhile, for the sake of precision, to distinguish water in the unsaturated zone from true ground water in the saturated zone below the water table. Subsurface flow is the term used by at least some hydrologists.
Technically it is groundwater by all means. Any subsurface water is ground water sensustricto as well as sensulato. Now it may again be classified to a more appropriate nomenclature to be precise. Here it may be acse of vadose zone water, preched water, precolated water or simply seepage / infiltration.
There is also the capillary fringe, which sits above the water table level.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/Vadose_zone.gif/250px-Vadose_zone.gif
we may probably call it 'perched' water as it occurs in the vadose zone and is not directly connected with the aquifer as such. Pl. refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_table for more info.
The term 'groundwater' really applies to any water that is below ground level, it's a term independent of the position of the water in relation to the water table or saturated zone. Basically any water in the ground may be conventionally referred to as groundwater.
As to a term for the water you describe I would probably call it 'interstitial water below the height of drainage' or something similar. If you're writing about this, then maybe define the term, and then give an acronym.
Does you soil show stagnic properties?
Do you have a picture?
What is the underlying lithology?
If you wish to make a distinction between recharge and horizontal flow then the term 'advection' can be used to describe the horizontal flow. For example, '... indicates that there is advection at 15m depth below ground level, despite this being 20m above the saturated zone.'.
Technically any water in the ground is ground water. It is how you describe what it is doing that matters. It's a folly to search for a term that is obscure and not in common use. Always bear in mind that you're writing for an audience, not for yourself or your supervisor.
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