Prevention of Saltwater Intrusion: A Laboratory-Scale Study on Electrokinetic Remediation

Abstract

Increased population along with improvement of living standard is forcing water demand to rise sharply in past few decades [1]. In coastal areas, for fulfilling the domestic, agricultural, industrial, and tourist water needs, groundwater is mostly overexploited [2]. Naturally fresh water flows from aquifers toward the sea and ground water flows from high level to low level, and this naturally occurring process prevents saltwater intrusion into fresh groundwater aquifers [3]. This phenomenon may get reversed due to long term climate change, sea level change, and tidal intensity fluctuations. Manmade activity like excessive pumping of fresh groundwater in coastal areas causes up-coning of transition zone as shown in Fig. 1, which has high impact on sea water intrusion. Saltwater intrusion can lower the potability of water and makes it difficult to use for other purposes like agricultural or industrial use [4]. Research has been going on to find out measures of controlling saltwater intrusion for protection of freshwater sources. The primary aim of these methods is to increase freshwater flow and reduce saltwater flow [5].

Developing Functional Recharge Systems to Control Saltwater Intrusion via Integrating Physical, Numerical, and Decision-Making Models for Coastal Aquifer Sustainability

“…There are four criteria in category (a) (R r , SLR i , Minimum HHR, and WAR), and five in categories (b) and (c), with RER which is indicating the artificial recharge, and is exclusively utilized in categories (b) and (c). The top three alternatives from each of the three categories that emerged from level (1) can be used to create the final choice for the best alternative at level (2). Pairwise comparisons with other criteria aid in determining the relative importance of each criterion in the hierarchical structuring of the problem.…”

“…Conversely, k x , S y , and S s exhibit a directly proportional effect on the saltwater intrusion; however, they have a negligible impact on the average salt line elevation. In contrast, three categories that emerged from level (1) can be used to create the final choice for the best alternative at level (2). Pairwise comparisons with other criteria aid in determining the relative importance of each criterion in the hierarchical structuring of the problem.…”

“…Due to the natural effects of long-term climate change, such as sea level change and tidal intensity fluctuations, seawater flows toward freshwater aquifers. In addition, increased water demands accompanied by anthropogenic activities such as excessive pumping of freshwater in coastal areas cause the lowering of water tables as well as saltwater intrusion [1,2]. Saltwater intrusion lowers the availability and quality of freshwater in coastal regions, as reported at many locations all over the world [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11].…”

Developing Functional Recharge Systems to Repel Saltwater Intrusion via Integrating Physical, Numerical, and Decision-Making Models for Coastal Aquifer Sustainability

“…Due to the natural effects of long-term climate change such as sea level change and tidal intensity fluctuations, seawater flows toward the freshwater aquifers. In addition, increased water demands accompanied by anthropogenic activities such as excessive pumping of freshwater in coastal areas cause the lowering of water tables as well as saltwater intrusion (Abd-Elaty et al 2019;Sutar and Rotte 2022). Saltwater intrusion lowers the potentiality and quality of freshwater in coastal regions, as reported at many locations all over the world (Qi and Qiu 2011;Shi and Jiao 2014;Anders et al 2014;Cary et al 2015; https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2023-89 Preprint.…”