ABSTRACT
Any vertical excavation on the earth’s surface is a water well provided that the purpose is to extract groundwater from the zone of saturation for domestic, agricultural, industrial, or similar uses. A water well is designed to get the optimum quantity of water from a saturated geological formation. Wells should have shapes that simplify the groundwater movement toward the well storage. The choice of well shape and dimensions depend on the topography, piezometric level, subsurface geological conditions of the surrounding aquifer, regional climate, rainfall, and recharge possibilities as well as quantities in addition to the water demand from the well itself. On many occasions economics and politics play an important role in well location determination. Technological aspects in a well excavation are outside the scope of this book, however, they are discussed elsewhere (Driscoll, 1987; Anderson, 1967).
