The application of poroelastic theory to monitor the use of soil and water resources

The change of dynamic earth system and the overuse of resources cause significant impacts on the environment and ecology. For example, result in the rise of sea level due to global warming to reduce the availability of land resources. Another example is the excessive use of groundwater to cause land subsidence and seawater intrusion. Utilizing scientific methods is useful and challenge for the reduction of environmental impacts from the resource interactions. Poroelastic theory is a well constructed physical model, which uses displacement and change in pore water pressure as the variables to explain the coupled behavior between soil deformation and water flow. In this study, analytical solutions of poroelastic theory subjected to different boundary conditions were derived. Changes in pore water pressure and displacement were analyzed under pumping and injection conditions. The results show that subsidence caused by the drainage at lower boundary is significant when compared to the top of the load. In the injection case, a balance point exists for the interaction of the loading at top and injection at bottom. Poroelastic theory was shown to be a useful tool for monitoring theuse of soil and water resources. It can be applied to environmental monitoring, such as carbon dioxide geological sequestration and land subsidence control.