Accurate Estimation of Initial Saltwater-freshwater Interface for
Simulating Saltwater Intrusion using numerical methods
Abstract
Coastal aquifers are prone to saltwater intrusion as increased demand
for freshwater leads to heavy, unregulated pumping from these coastal
aquifers. Under sustainable pumping conditions, the saltwater-freshwater
interface is stable but rarely monitored. When saltwater intrusion is
first detected, saltwater-freshwater interface is already disturbed and
starts moving inland. Any numerical simulation-based methodology to
manage saltwater intrusion requires the initial saltwater-freshwater
interface to be known. Numerical models need to satisfy the boundary
conditions and the initial conditions (Cauchy–Riemann equation) for the
solution to exist. However, in the absence of any monitoring, the
initial position of the saltwater-freshwater interface is unknown, which
forms the initial condition for numerical models and thus fall in the
category of initial value problem. Pool and Carrera’s correction factor
for the sharp interface approach is used to estimate the initial
saltwater-freshwater interface. Generally, groundwater head information
is readily available, which can be used to locate the
saltwater-freshwater interface. Ghyben-Herzberg relation is used for
estimating the initial position of the interface, but the level of
accuracy of the information derived from Ghyben-Herzberg relation is
low. Hence, in this study Pool and Carrera’s correction factor for
density ratio is used in Ghyben-Herzberg relation for accurate
estimation initial interface location. The developed method is applied
to a real coastal site in Puri, India, where the aquifer is encroached
by saltwater intrusion. The performance evaluation results show the
applicability of this methodology