Unconfined coastal aquifers are a main pathway for land-sourced solutes to enter the oceans. The migration of these solutes in aquifers is highly affected by the groundwater flow and salt transport processes, which are, to a great extent, controlled by tides. While many studies have examined how tidal oscillations would influence the subsurface hydrodynamics in coastal aquifers, most of them ignored the potential impact of groundwater pumping, a common practice in coastal areas to satisfy the demand for freshwater. This study, by means of laboratory experiments and numerical simulations, explored the combined effects of tides and groundwater pumping on the pore water flow and salinity distributions in an unconfined coastal aquifer. The results show that, in a tide-controlled aquifer, the addition of groundwater pumping would exacerbate the degree of seawater intrusion and lead to wider spreading and deeper penetration of the upper saline plume. Moreover, groundwater pumping would enhance the tide-driven circulation in the upper saline plume and weaken the density-driven circulation in the saltwater wedge, ultimately leading to the reduction in total submarine groundwater discharge. These findings may promote a deep insight into the complex coastal groundwater systems experiencing human activities, and provide guidance for better evaluating the environmental impact of groundwater pumping.
{"title":"Effects of groundwater pumping on pore water flow and salt transport in tide-controlled unconfined coastal aquifers","authors":"Qian Chen, Lei Zhang, Chengji Shen, Chunhui Lu","doi":"10.1002/hyp.15261","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.15261","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Unconfined coastal aquifers are a main pathway for land-sourced solutes to enter the oceans. The migration of these solutes in aquifers is highly affected by the groundwater flow and salt transport processes, which are, to a great extent, controlled by tides. While many studies have examined how tidal oscillations would influence the subsurface hydrodynamics in coastal aquifers, most of them ignored the potential impact of groundwater pumping, a common practice in coastal areas to satisfy the demand for freshwater. This study, by means of laboratory experiments and numerical simulations, explored the combined effects of tides and groundwater pumping on the pore water flow and salinity distributions in an unconfined coastal aquifer. The results show that, in a tide-controlled aquifer, the addition of groundwater pumping would exacerbate the degree of seawater intrusion and lead to wider spreading and deeper penetration of the upper saline plume. Moreover, groundwater pumping would enhance the tide-driven circulation in the upper saline plume and weaken the density-driven circulation in the saltwater wedge, ultimately leading to the reduction in total submarine groundwater discharge. These findings may promote a deep insight into the complex coastal groundwater systems experiencing human activities, and provide guidance for better evaluating the environmental impact of groundwater pumping.</p>","PeriodicalId":13189,"journal":{"name":"Hydrological Processes","volume":"38 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142089890","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study employs an event-based approach to analyse drought propagation from meteorological to hydrological drought via agricultural drought in the semi-arid Krishna River basin of India. The Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), Standardized Soil Moisture Index (SSMI) and Standardized Streamflow Index (SSI) representing meteorological, agricultural and hydrological drought, respectively, were estimated. Two different cases of drought propagation are analysed: meteorological-to-agricultural (SPEI-to-SSMI) and agricultural-to-hydrological (SSMI-to-SSI). The drought propagation is analysed using three-time matrices, namely the time difference between initiation (