Dr David Poulsen

David Poulsen is a Post-Doctoral researcher with the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training at Flinders University, having completed his PhD in 2019. Previously, David worked as a hydrogeologist in Australia and New Zealand, accumulating a broad range of practical experience in groundwater resource exploration, development, and management. His areas of interest include quantitative hydrogeology, hydrogeophysics, the use of flow tracers at the intra- and inter-borehole scales, environmental tracers, and analytical and numerical modelling.

David’s recent research has focussed on optimising the quality and quantity of data in groundwater studies by utilising existing non-ideal borehole and well infrastructure. With a proper understanding of aquifer-well hydraulics, a range of techniques can be used to derive more reliable estimates of groundwater flow, aquifer properties and water chemistry at the borehole scale. Such techniques include borehole flowmeter and other geophysical tools combined with pumping tests and depth-resolved groundwater sampling.

David is currently involved in a collaborative study with a mining company in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Groundwater flow and recharge processes are being examined to help inform better management of present and future mining related impacts in a geologically complex setting.