Groundwater Responses to Tidal Oscillations in a Coastal Plain Overlying a Sloping Semiconfined Aquifer System
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 23, Issue 4
Abstract
In a coastal aquifer, the interaction of tides and groundwater has a crucial impact on marine ecosystems. The model in this study consists of a semiconfined coastal aquifer overlying a sloping impermeable base in the presence of tidal waves. The groundwater flow was represented by a nonlinear Boussinesq equation, which was further solved analytically by converting it into a linearized form using a suitable technique. To assess the validity of the linearization technique, a numerical solution was obtained from the corresponding nonlinear equation using a fully stable alternate direction implicit scheme. The joint effects of the aquifer and tidal parameters were considered to analyze the behavior of the water table fluctuation. The accuracy between the analytical and numerical simulation results was tested by calculating the relative percentage difference. Asymptotic cases such as zero slopes and various leakage and tidal periods are discussed. Depending on the positive, negative, or zero values of flow rate and volumetric exchange, the groundwater flow can be categorized into inflow, outflow, or steady state. It was observed from the results that slope and tidal nature have a major impact on the water table fluctuation in a semiconfined coastal aquifer.
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Acknowledgments
The authors sincerely thank the four anonymous reviewers whose insightful and constructive comments and suggested revisions improved the organization and clarity of the paper.
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Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 23 • Issue 4 • April 2018
Copyright
©2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 17, 2017
Accepted: Sep 27, 2017
Published online: Jan 26, 2018
Published in print: Apr 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Jun 26, 2018
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