Highlights of OGS - GSC collaboration on Regional Groundwater Studies: 2015 - 2016

Following the first year of the Ontario Geological Survey and Geological Survey of Canada collaborative project an update on work completed under four principal themes is provided. To support a Framework for Sustainable Groundwater Use, a multiagency workshop was held on November 24th 2015 to address the need for a provincial groundwater data framework to support sustainable groundwater management. Project contributions to this embryonic framework involve development of a 3-D geological model of the Paleozoic and Surficial Geology. This initiative is also being advanced by development of an index stratigraphic framework of continuous core for the surficial geology of southern Ontario and online access via the Groundwater Information Network (GIN). Collaborative work has been initiated on development of a conceptual landscape framework on groundwater - surface water which will provide a foundation for issues identified in Annex 8 of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. Methods Development for Regional Groundwater Studies are being advanced through analysis of seismic reflection, downhole geophysics and geochemistry data. Passive seismic techniques are being explored to permit enhanced depth to bedrock mapping and characterization of high velocity contrast units in the surficial stratigraphy. Activity development is ongoing on how to further advance data integration and analysis from a hydrogeophysics perspective. Regional methods for measurement of water storage and soil moisture using inferometry, RadarSat II and SMOS and SMAP are ongoing. In the past year, specific Case Studies have involved seismic reflection data collection in the Wasaga Beach and Niagara area. Results of previously collected downhole geophysics in the South Simcoe area were published by the GSC and additional downhole data collection commenced in the Niagara area with additional work planned for the Wasaga Beach area in 2016. Documentation of a legacy 300 site surficial geochemical dataset for Southern Ontario has been completed. This regional coverage is being complemented with pXRF analysis of continuous core to develop a subsurface chemostratigraphic framework. Eight cores collected across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) have been analyzed and analysis will be extended to OGS cores from the Oro, Wasaga Beach, South Simcoe, Orangeville, Waterloo, Brantford-Woodstock, Niagara and London areas. Work is ongoing in the search for collaborative partnerships for an additional geochemical dataset in the GTA. Continuous core, geological modelling, and hydrogeological paraters (K) in the South Simcoe area are being used in a Ph.D. The study involves a stochastic facies simulation (geostatistics) of hydrostratigraphic heterogeneity with the objective to provide regionuncertainty assessment for groundwater flow modelling. Following up on the March 6th 2015 GAPS analysis workshop, Science & Technology Exchange has been initiated through an annual OGS-GSC open house. Manuscript submissions are underway for a special issue of Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences on the theme of Quaternary Geology and Applications to Groundwater Understanding. Project results are available via OGS - GSC publication streams, conference proceedings, and journal publications.