| Summary: | Groundwater provides about 60 percent of drinking water in Finland. In western Finland, drinking water for the town of Kurikka (pop. ~21 700) comes from glaciofluvial aquifers confined underneath thick glaciomarine aquitards along structurally-controlled bedrock valleys. One such valley is called the Paloluoma Buried Bedrock Valley (BBV) – an area that experiences a subarctic climate with no dry season and cool summers. The nearby town of Vaasa (pop. ~70 000) currently uses river water, which is more prone to near-surface sources of contamination than groundwater. As such, Vaasa intends to get its water supply from the same aquifer as Kurikka, especially because the aquifer of interest is seemingly highly productive. With increased interest and demand, it is important to understand key hydrogeological characteristics of the Paloluoma BBV aquifer system, its flow dynamics, and response to pumping in order to assess its sustainable exploitation rate. Such an assessment of the groundwater system has yet to be completed for this region. Hence, research on key hydrogeological characteristics and behaviour of the groundwater system is necessary to determine sustainable usage and develop plans to better protect and manage this groundwater resource. An understanding of groundwater systems is commonly developed by coupling a conceptual model with a flow model. The conceptual hydrogeological model of the Paloluoma BBV aquifer system was developed using methods such as water balances and pumping test analyses, which estimate hydraulic parameters such as groundwater recharge and hydraulic conductivity, respectively. The conceptual model also includes the 3D subsurface hydrostratigraphic structure consisting of a series of aquifers and aquitards for a total of 14 sedimentary hydrostratigraphic units (HSU) and bedrock. Important hydrogeological characteristics based on the conceptual model include the lack of groundwater interaction between surface water bodies and subsurface units, the delineation of spatial recharge on the ...
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