CORRELATION OF LINEAMENTS TO GROUND WATER INFLOWS IN THE MWRA TUNNEL
Thirteen (68%) of the flow zones correlate with coincident lineaments, six zones correlate with more than one image type, and one zone correlates with all three image types. Overall, it is difficult to distinguish lineaments that will be successful in predicting water-bearing zones from those that will be unsuccessful without considering other corroborating evidence. Most of the observed flow (80%) correlates with northwest-trending coincident lineaments. However, the majority of the flow (67%) associated with these lineaments is produced from structures that strike to the north or northeast. In addition, only fifteen of the thirty-five coincident lineaments correlate with the flow zones indicating that twenty lineaments are not associated with any appreciable flow. Six flow zones are undetected by the lineament analysis.
In this study, BW lineaments are able distinguish high-yield through-going structures (at the 90% confidence level) with greater reliability than the SLAR or CIR lineaments. However, linking bedrock type, overburden type, topographic position, and proximity to surface water bodies with lineament analysis improves the predictive capability of the lineament method.