The Assessment of Hydrothermal Potential in the Urban Area of Yichang City in China

Groundwater recharge by faults is often ignored in current hydrothermal potential assessment approaches. This omission may cause a significant discrepancy between the estimated potential and the actual potential in areas adjacent to faults. To address this gap, this study proposes a novel approach for assessing hydrothermal potential that incorporates the influence of faults. This approach was applied to investigate the hydrothermal potential in the main urban area of Yichang, China. The data obtained from the traditional methods and the novel approach were evaluated through comparison with field pumping test data. The findings indicate that the estimates from both methods generally align with the actual potential in most areas. However, significant discrepancies emerge between the estimated and actual potential in zones proximate to faults. Specifically, the traditional method yielded an estimate 60–75% lower than the field measurements. In contrast, the novel approach reduced this deviation by 20%, demonstrating its superior accuracy in fault zones. This study demonstrates the superior performance of the proposed approach over traditional methods for characterizing the heterogeneous distribution of hydrothermal resources in fault-developed zones.