Seawater intrusion (SWI) is one of the most challenging and widespread environmental problems that threaten the quality and sustainability of fresh groundwater resources in coastal aquifers. The excessive pumping of groundwater, associated with the lack of natural recharge, has exacerbated the SWI problem in arid and semi-arid regions. Therefore, appropriate management strategies should be implemented in coastal aquifers to control the impacts of SWI problems, considering acceptable limits of economic and environmental costs. The management of coastal aquifers involves the identification of an acceptable ultimate landward extent of the saline water body and the calculation of the amount of seaward discharge of freshwater that is necessary to keep the saline–freshwater interface in a seacoast position. This paper presents a comprehensive review of available hydraulic and physical management strategies that can be used to reduce and control SWI in coastal aquifers. Advantages and disadvantages of the different approaches are presented and discussed.
This study presents the application of Evolutionary Polynomial Regression (EPR) as pattern recognition system to predicate the numerical results of nonlinear and computationally complex aquifer system threatened by seawater intrusion (SWI). The developed EPR models are also linked with the multi objective genetic algorithm to test the efficiency of different arrangements of hydraulic barriers considered to control SWI. For this purpose the developed EPR model for each control scenario are trained and tested on the set of different pumping patterns as inputs and the corresponding set of numerically calculated outputs. The results are compared with those obtained by direct linking of the numerical simulation model with the optimization tool. These two strategies of the simulation-optimization (S/O) show excellent agreement on the obtained set of optimal solutions. The three combined management scenarios have been considered which involve the effects of both abstraction and recharge barriers simultaneously. Minimization of both the economic cost of management process and the salinity level in the aquifer are the two objective functions used for evaluating the cost efficiency of each management scenario studied. By considering the effects of the unsaturated zone, the subsurface pond is used to collect the water and to artificially recharge the aquifer in these scenarios. The main distinguish feature of EPR emerges in its application as metamodel in S/O process where it reduces the overall computational complexity significantly. The results also suggested that the application of cheap source of water such as the TWW and/or storm water instead of desalinated water coupled with continues abstraction water followed by its application for human consumption or irrigation after desalination as most cost effective method to control SWI. The effects of supplying these different external sources of recharge water and also the effects of different recovery ratios of desalination plant on the optimal results are also presented through sensitivity studies by using the developed methodology.
9Seawater intrusion (SWI) is a widespread environmental problem, particularly in arid and 10 semi-arid coastal areas. Therefore, appropriate management strategies should be implemented
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