About the possibility of monitoring groundwater fluxes variations through active-DTS measurements

The monitoring of temporal variabilities of groundwater flows is a critical point in many hydrogeological contexts, especially for the characterization of coastal aquifers, sub-surface heterogeneities or else groundwater/stream interactions. Considering the lack of available methods, we investigate the possibility of monitoring and quantifying groundwater fluxes variations over time through active-Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) measurements. Active-DTS, consisting in heating a fiber optic cable, performs very well for investigating the spatial distribution of groundwater fluxes but the method has never been tested to continuously monitor groundwater fluxes changes. In this context, both numerical simulations and sandbox experiments were performed in order to assess the sensitivity of temperature elevation to variable flow conditions. Results first demonstrate that when a flow change is followed by a long-enough steady-state flow stage the temperature elevation stabilizes independently of previous fluxes conditions. Thus, the stabilization temperature can easily be interpreted to estimate groundwater fluxes using the analytical model commonly used under steady flow conditions to interpret active-DTS measurements. Under certain flow conditions, depending on the nature of flow variations, the approach also allows the continuous monitoring of fluxes variations over time. If instantaneous flow changes occur, the superposition principle can even be used to reproduce the temperature signal over time. In summary, we demonstrated through these preliminary results the possibility of for monitoring and/or quantifying the temporal dynamic of groundwater fluxes at different temporal scales including diurnal and periodic fluxes variations, which open very interesting perspectives for the quantification of subsurface processes.