Study on the groundwater sustainable problem by numerical simulation in a multi-layered coastal aquifer system of Zhanjiang, China

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Abstract

Assessing sustainability of coastal groundwater is significant for groundwater management as coastal groundwater is vulnerable to over-exploitation and contamination. To address the issues of serious groundwater level drawdown and potential seawater intrusion risk of a multi-layered coastal aquifer system in Zhanjiang, China, this paper presents a numerical modelling study to research groundwater sustainability of this aquifer system. The transient modelling results show that the groundwater budget was negative (\(-3826\times 10^{4}\) to \(-4502\times 10^{4 }\,\hbox {m}^{3}/\hbox {a}\)) during the years 2008–2011, revealing that this aquifer system was over-exploited. Meanwhile, the groundwater sustainability was assessed by evaluating the negative hydraulic pressure area (NHPA) of the unconfined aquifer and the groundwater level dynamic and flow velocity of the offshore boundaries of the confined aquifers. The results demonstrate that the Nansan Island is most influenced by NHPA and that the local groundwater should not be exploited. The results also suggest that, with the current groundwater exploitation scheme, the sustainable yield should be \(1.784\times 10^{8}\, \hbox {m}^{3}/\hbox {a}\) (i.e., decreased by 20% from the current exploitation amount). To satisfy public water demands, the 20% decrease of the exploitation amount can be offset by the groundwater sourced from the Taiping groundwater resource field. These results provide valuable guidance for groundwater management of Zhanjiang.

Keywords

Numerical modelling coastal multi-layered aquifers groundwater resources sustainability groundwater level dynamics negative hydraulic pressure area Zhanjiang 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments. Our research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41502255).

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Copyright information

© Indian Academy of Sciences 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Key Laboratory of Shale Gas and Geoengineering, Institute of Geology and GeophysicsChinese Academy of SciencesBeijingChina
  2. 2.Chinese Research Academy of Environmental SciencesBeijingChina
  3. 3.The First Hydrogeological Team, Guangdong Geological BureauZhanjiangChina

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