Numerical study of groundwater flow cycling controlled by seawater/freshwater interaction in Woodville Karst Plain

Xu, Zhongyuan; Hu, Bill X.; Xu, Zexuan; Wu, Xiujie

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2019.124171

Title: Numerical study of groundwater flow cycling controlled by seawater/freshwater interaction in Woodville Karst Plain

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Abstract

Seawater intrusion due to sea level rise and climate change could significantly contaminate coastal groundwater resources, particularly in Florida, the flat low-land state in the United States. Based on the field investigation and hydrological measurements, a three-dimensional SEAWAT model is developed to evaluate the groundwater flow cycling and seawater intrusion to freshwater system in the Woodville Karst Plain (WKP), a typical karst groundwater system in the Floridan aquifer. The karst conduit network in the aquifer acts as fast flow pathway for groundwater flow and solute transport, so seawater could deeply intrude into the aquifer. Wakulla Spring, an inland spring 17 km from the coast and a coastal submarine spring, Spring Creek Spring Complex are connected through the conduit network. The flow direction between the two springs switches under various rainfall conditions in this region, thus the discharges at two karst springs are used to estimate the location of seawater/freshwater mixing interface. The SEAWAT modeling results indicate that the mixing interface, defined as 2 PSU (Practical Salinity Unit), intrudes 3 to 5 km through the subsurface karst conduit during the dry season and severely contaminates nearly 1 km width of groundwater around the conduit. The salinity distribution and the distance ofmore »« less

Authors:

Xu, Zhongyuan ^[1]; Hu, Bill X. ^[2];

^[3]; Wu, Xiujie ^[4]

Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States); Chengdu Univ. of Technology, Chengdu (China)
Jinan Univ., Guangzhou, Guangdong (China). Inst. of Groundwater and Earth Sciences
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Chengdu Univ. of Technology, Chengdu (China)

Publication Date:: Mon Sep 23 00:00:00 EDT 2019

Research Org.:: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Nature Science Foundation of China (NNSFC)

OSTI Identifier:: 1580992

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231; 41530316

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Journal of Hydrology

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 579; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 0022-1694

Publisher:: Elsevier

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 58 GEOSCIENCES; Seawater intrusion; Karst aquifer; Conduit system; Density dependent flow; Sea level rise

Citation Formats


                    Xu, Zhongyuan, Hu, Bill X., Xu, Zexuan, and Wu, Xiujie. Numerical study of groundwater flow cycling controlled by seawater/freshwater interaction in Woodville Karst Plain.  United States: N. p., 2019. 
Web.  doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2019.124171.

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                    Xu, Zhongyuan, Hu, Bill X., Xu, Zexuan, & Wu, Xiujie. Numerical study of groundwater flow cycling controlled by seawater/freshwater interaction in Woodville Karst Plain.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2019.124171

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                    Xu, Zhongyuan, Hu, Bill X., Xu, Zexuan, and Wu, Xiujie. Mon .  
"Numerical study of groundwater flow cycling controlled by seawater/freshwater interaction in Woodville Karst Plain".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2019.124171.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1580992.

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@article{osti_1580992,

  title        = {Numerical study of groundwater flow cycling controlled by seawater/freshwater interaction in Woodville Karst Plain},

  author       = {Xu, Zhongyuan and Hu, Bill X. and Xu, Zexuan and Wu, Xiujie},

  abstractNote = {Seawater intrusion due to sea level rise and climate change could significantly contaminate coastal groundwater resources, particularly in Florida, the flat low-land state in the United States. Based on the field investigation and hydrological measurements, a three-dimensional SEAWAT model is developed to evaluate the groundwater flow cycling and seawater intrusion to freshwater system in the Woodville Karst Plain (WKP), a typical karst groundwater system in the Floridan aquifer. The karst conduit network in the aquifer acts as fast flow pathway for groundwater flow and solute transport, so seawater could deeply intrude into the aquifer. Wakulla Spring, an inland spring 17 km from the coast and a coastal submarine spring, Spring Creek Spring Complex are connected through the conduit network. The flow direction between the two springs switches under various rainfall conditions in this region, thus the discharges at two karst springs are used to estimate the location of seawater/freshwater mixing interface. The SEAWAT modeling results indicate that the mixing interface, defined as 2 PSU (Practical Salinity Unit), intrudes 3 to 5 km through the subsurface karst conduit during the dry season and severely contaminates nearly 1 km width of groundwater around the conduit. The salinity distribution and the distance of seawater intrusion through the conduit system are very sensitive to precipitation variation and the sea level boundary condition. Furthermore, predictions are made for seawater intrusion to the aquifer under various sea level rise, precipitation scenarios and water pumping. The results show that the seawater intrusion could reach and contaminate inland freshwater systems if sea level rises 1.0 m or during a long-term no-precipitation season. Finally, this study provides insights for modeling and predicting the vulnerability of a coastal karst aquifer through the simulation of variable-density flow.},

  doi          = {10.1016/j.jhydrol.2019.124171},

  journal      = {Journal of Hydrology},

  number       = C,

  volume       = 579,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Mon Sep 23 00:00:00 EDT 2019},

  month        = {Mon Sep 23 00:00:00 EDT 2019}

}

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