Groundwater | Glossaire eau, milieu marin et biodiversité

Confined groundwater

Sens technique

Fully saturated aquifer with a confined groundwater layer limited at its top by very low permeability formations preventing any significant flow.

Source

According to Poitou-Charentes Regional Council

Specific abstraction

Sens technique

System designed to remove pollution at source. It comprises a kind of wraparound intake roughly connected to a polluted air exhaust system (blowing - suction).

Source

According to Ademe

Natural geochemical background

Sens commun

Natural concentration of an element, a compound or a substance in a given environment, in the absence of any specific external input, such as human activity.

Source

According to BRGM

Groundwater quality control

Sens technique

Checking groundwater quality as to its compliance with regulatory requirements or specific characteristics, and based on previously established procedures (sample methods, analytical, etc).

Source

According to BRGM

Inland waters

Sens commun

All stagnant and running waters on the ground and all underground waters, and located upstream of the baseline used for the delimitation of territorial waters.

Source

According to OFB

Aquifer in limestone ground whose behaviour is characterized by heterogeneity and compartmentalization of the reservoir that result in two types of functions: the conductive function resulting in rapid flow through interconnected karstic conduits (cracks widened by dissolution), which explains the high vulnerability to contamination of these aquifers and the travel speed of pollutants; and the capacitive function, mainly provided by micro-cracked and cracked areas with slower flow velocities and a storage capacity that may vary depending on the kind of limestone.

Source

According to Rhone-Mediterranean and Corsica Water Agency

Infiltration

Sens commun

Amount of water passing through the soil surface. The infiltration phenomenon recharges groundwater and maintains the groundwater flow in permeable hydrogeological formations in the sub-soil. Compared with surface water flow, the groundwater flow can be slow, delayed and long-term (a few hours to several thousands of years).

Source

According to the Ministry of Ecology

Coastal aquifer

Sens commun

An aquifer, one of the limits of which is the sea. Therefore, the level of the aquifer is imposed by the sea level. It results that, if usually freshwater of coastal aquifers flows into the sea, salt water can enter into the aquifer depending on the load variations within the aquifer (natural status or overexploitation of coastal

Source

According to Rhone-Mediterranean and Corsica Water Agency

Aquifer system

Sens technique

Set of aquifers constituting a hydrogeological unit. Its hydrodynamic characteristics give it a quasi-hydraulic independence (non-propagation of effects outside its limits). As such, it is an entity for the management of the underground water it contains.

Source

d'après Ministère chargé de l'environnement et OFB

Polluted site

Sens commun

Site where the soil or subsoil or groundwater has been polluted by former waste deposits or by the infiltration of pollutants; this pollution being likely to cause a nuisance or a permanent

Source

According to the Ministry for the Environment and OFB