A hierarchy of response functions for groundwater management

The physical system this paper deals with is a river basin with multiunit aquifers and interconnected streams. The problem was how to model this complex system mathematically and then to represent it in terms of its response to stress in the form of pumpage and recharge. The system responds to pumpage in two ways: as drawdown or as flow between streams and aquifers. A hierarchy of linear mathematical models for a large‐scale physical system response to stress was developed. For the system response an explicit mathematical expression was used to couple the physical system with the formulation of a management model. The models developed in this paper were successfully tested on a case study of the Fairfield‐New Baltimore area at the lower part of the Great Miami River in southwestern Ohio.