Case Study: a major water supply company achieves major groundwater supply gains with SLB aquifer modeling

Identifying Aquifers with Major Water Supply Potential in Region of Low Precipitation

SLB worked with a major water supply company in Bahia, Brazil, to evaluate groundwater supply potential in a region with low rainfall and high evaporation. The customer needed a better understanding of two key aquifers in the Tucano basin, where water resources had been developed ad hoc and concerns about long-term sustainability were limiting regional development.

Using Visual MODFLOW, AquiferTest, and AquaChem, SLB and Bahia’s Water Resources Public Agency built a regional groundwater flow model, analyzed pumping and water-quality data, and simulated future abstraction scenarios. The project revealed significant additional water production capacity, showed that some wells could produce more than 6 million liters per day, and indicated that groundwater abstraction could more than double without major aquifer impacts, helping plan water initiatives for more than 1 million people.