A 2-D unconfined flow model is developed to analyze annual variations of groundwater
level and bank filtration rate (BFR) for an experimental riverbank filtration site in
Koryeong, Korea. Two typed of boundary conditions are examined for the river boundary
in the conceptual model: the static head condition that uses the average water level of
the river and the dynamic cyclic condition that incorporates annual fluctuation of
water level. Simulation show that the estimated BFR ranges 74.3~87.0% for the static
head boundary condition and 52.7~98.1% with the mean of 78.5% for the dynamic cyclic
condition. The results illustrate that the dynamic cyclic condition should be used for
accurate evaluation of BFR. Simulations also show that increase of the distance
between the river and the pumping wells slightly decreases BFR up to 4%, and thereby
indicate that it is not a critical factor to be accounted for in designing BFR of the
bank filtration system. A sensitivity analysis is performed to examine the effects of
model parameters such as hydraulic conductivity and specific yield of the aquifer,
recharge rate, and pumping rate. The results demonstrate that the average groundwater
level and BFR are most sensitive to both the pumping rate and the recharge rate, while
the water level of the pumping wells is sensitive to the hydraulic conductivity and the
pumping rate.