What are wells? overview of the terms used to groundwater abstraction

Abstract

The advances of studies of groundwater hydrology often leave aside some essential and basic concepts related to the area of knowledge. Groundwater catchment units, also known as wells, receive different denominations in the most diverse studies and researches in different regions. Words such as artesian, phreatic, among others, correlated with studies with groundwater, are often misused in the existing literature. The lack of a standardization of terms can cause difficulties in interpreting the data in certain situations because of the differentiation of languages and, consequently, lack of compatibility between databases. The objective of this work is to outline the terminologies used to designate groundwater catchment units and, thus, to generate a discussion on the standardization of a single nomenclature. The methodology adopted in the execution of this study was basically performed through the analysis of previous studies. It was found that the subject of "lack of standardization" has already been addressed by other researchers, but the lack of a specific nomenclature for groundwater capture units continues to exist.