Seawater intrusion (SWI) is a significant threat to freshwater resources in coastal aquifers around the world. Previous studies have focused on SWI impacts involving salinization of the lower domain of coastal aquifers. However, under certain conditions, SWI may cause salinization of the entire saturated zone of the aquifer, leading to water table salinization (WTS) in unconfined aquifers by replacing freshwater within the upper region of the saturated zone with seawater, thereby posing a salinity threat to the overlying soil zone. There is presently limited guidance on the extent to which WTS may occur as a secondary impact of SWI. In this study, physical experiments and numerical modeling were used to explore WTS associated with SWI in various nontidal, unconfined coastal aquifer settings. Laboratory experiments and corresponding numerical simulations show that significant WTS can occur under active SWI (i.e., the freshwater hydraulic gradient slopes toward the land) because the cessation of freshwater discharge to the sea and the subsequent landward flow across the entire sea boundary eventually lead to water table salinities approaching seawater concentration. WTS during active SWI is larger under conditions of high hydraulic conductivity, rapid SWI, high dispersivity and for deeper aquifers. Numerical modeling of four published field cases demonstrates that rates of WTS of up to 60 m/yr are plausible. Under passive SWI (i.e., the hydraulic gradient slopes toward the sea), minor WTS may arise as a result of dispersive processes under certain conditions (i.e., high dispersivity and hydraulic conductivity, and low freshwater discharge). Our results show that WTS is probably widespread in coastal aquifers experiencing considerable groundwater decline sustained over several years, although further evidence is needed to identify WTS under field settings.
The inland migration of seawater in coastal aquifers, known as seawater intrusion (SWI), can be categorised as passive or active, depending on whether the hydraulic gradient slopes downwards towards the sea or the land, respectively. Despite active SWI occurring in many locations, it has received considerably less attention than passive SWI. In this study, active SWI caused by an inland freshwater head decline (FHD) is characterised using numerical modelling of various idealised unconfined coastal aquifer settings. Relationships between key features of active SWI (e.g., interface characteristics and SWI response timescales) and the parameters of the problem (e.g., inland FHD, freshwater-seawater density contrast, dispersivity, hydraulic conductivity, porosity and aquifer thickness) are explored for the first time. Sensitivity analyses show that the SWI response timescales under active SWI situations are influenced by both the initial and final boundary head differences. The interface is found to be steeper under stronger advection (i.e., caused by the inland FHD), higher dispersivity and hydraulic conductivity, and lower aquifer thickness, seawater density and porosity. The interface movement is faster and the mixing zone is wider with larger hydraulic conductivity, seawater-freshwater density difference, and aquifer thickness, and with lower porosity. Dimensionless parameters (Peclet number and mixed convection ratio) from previous steadystate analyses offer only limited application to the controlling factors of passive SWI, and are not applicable to active SWI. The current study of active SWI highlights important functional relationships that improve the general understanding of SWI, which has otherwise been founded primarily on steady-state and passive SWI.
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