Groundwater Levels of the Main Aquifer and Panke Valley Aquifer 2006

Introduction

The exact knowledge of the current ground-water levels, and hence also of groundwater stocks, is imperative for the State of Berlin, since 100% of the drinking-water supply (approx. 212 million m³ in 2005) is obtained from groundwater. This groundwater is pumped at nine waterworks, almost entirely from the city’s own area. Only the Stolpe Waterworks on the northern outskirts obtain water from Brandenburg, but also supply Berlin (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1: Location of the nine waterworks supplying Berlin with drinking-water in May 2006

Moreover, groundwater reserves are tapped for in-house and industrial use, as well as for major construction projects and heating-related purposes. Numerous instances of soil and groundwater contamination are known in Berlin, which can only be rehabilitated on the basis of exact knowledge of groundwater conditions.

Definitions Regarding Groundwater

Groundwater is underground water (DIN 4049, Part 3, 1994) which coherently fills out the cavities in the lithosphere, the movement of which is caused exclusively by gravity. In Berlin, as in the entire North German Plain, the cavities are the pores between the soil particles in the loose sediments. Precipitation water which seeps (infiltrates) into the ground first of fills out these pores. Only that part of the infiltrating seepage water which is not bound as adhesive water in the non-water-saturated soil, or used up by evaporation, can seep to the phreatic surface and form groundwater. Capillary water within the unsaturated soil zone is situated above the groundwater surface which is able to arise to different hight, due to the type of soil (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2: Phenomenology of Underground Water

Aquifers are made of sands and gravels, and, as incoherent material, make the storage and movement of groundwater possible.
Aquitards consist of clay, silt, gyttja and glacial till and, as cohesive material, hinder water movement.
Aquicludes are made of clay which is virtually impermeable to water.

Groundwater the phreatic surface of which lies within an aquifer, i.e., whose phreatic and piezometric surfaces coincide, is known as free or unconfined groundwater. If however, an aquifer is covered by an aquitard, the groundwater cannot rise as high as it might in response to its hydrostatic pressure. Under these conditions, the piezometric surface is above the phreatic surface of the groundwater, which is then referred to as confined (Fig. 3).

If an aquitard is located over a large coherent aquifer (main aquifer), such as a glacial till, above that glacial till floating groundwater may develop temporarily. If there is groundwater in sandy segments inside an aquitard it is called perched groundwater (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3: Hydrogeological Terms

As a rule, groundwater flows at a low incline into the rivers and lakes (receiving bodies of water) and infiltrates into them (effluent conditions; Fig. 4a).

Fig. 4a: Groundwater infiltrates into bodies of water

In times of flood water water surface is situated above the groundwater. During that time bodies of water infiltrate into groundwater (influent condition). This is known as bank-filtered water (Fig. 4b).

Fig. 4b: Bank-filtered water caused by flood water: bodies of water infiltrate into groundwater

If in the neighborhood of these surface waters groundwater is discharged, e.g. through wells, so that the phreatic surface drops below the level of that body of water, the surface water infiltrates into the groundwater as bank-filtered water, too. (Fig. 4c).

Fig. 4c: Bank-filtered water caused by discharge of groundwater: caused by the lowering of the groundwater by wells, bodies of water infiltrate into groundwater

The groundwater velocity of flow in Berlin is about 10 to 500 m p/a, depending on groundwater incline descent and the permeability of the aquifer. However, near well facilities, these low flow velocities can increase significantly.

Geology and Hydrogeology

The present shape of the earth’s surface in Berlin was predominantly the result of the Vistula Ice Age, the most recent of the three great quaternary inland glaciations. The most important morphological units are the Warsaw-Berlin Glacial Spillway with the Panke Valley in the neighbourhood with predominantly sandy-gravel deposits, and the Barnim Plateau in the north and the Teltow Plateau with the Nauen Plate in the south, which are covered in large part by the thick glacial till or boulder clay of the ground moraines (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5: Geological Outline Map of Berlin

The loose sediments dating from the tertiary and quaternary, and averaging approx. 150 m in thickness, are of special significance for the water supply and for the foundation soil. They form the freshwater stock from which all the drinking water and a large part of the process water of the city is drawn.

The tertiary rupelton clay layer beneath it is about 80 m thick, and constitutes a hydraulic barrier against the deeper saltwater tier (Fig. 6).

Fig. 6: Hydrogeological Cross-Section of Berlin

Due to the alternation of aquifers and aquitards, the freshwater stock in the Berlin area is broken down into four separate hydraulic aquifers (Limberg, Thierbach 2002). The second aquifer, which is largely a Saale-glaciation-era aquifer, is known as the main aquifer, since it supplies the predominant share of the drinking water. The fifth aquifer is already in the saltwater tier under the saltwater stock.

The groundwater conditions in the main aquifer (aquifer 2) are shown in the groundwater isoline map in violet, as well as the Panke Valley aquifer (aquifer 1) in the north-western area of the Barnim Plateau in blue. Here the Panke Valley aquifer situated above the main groundwater aquifer, separated by the clay-layer of the ground moraine (Fig. 6 and 7).

Fig. 7 The unconfined Panke Valley aquifer (aquifer 1) in the northwest of Berlin is situated above the main aquifer (aquifer 2), that is confined in this area

In the north-western area of the Barnim Plateau the ground moraines are that mighty that no main groundwater aquifer exists or the main groundwater aquifer occures only in a thickness of a few meters. For those areas of the Berlin city groundwater isolines are not displayed.