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Sustainability analysis of groundwater resources in a coastal aquifer, Alabama

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Environmental Geology

Abstract

Fort Morgan Peninsula is an attached portion of a dynamic barrier complex in the northern Gulf of Mexico and is a large tourist area that brings in a significant amount of revenue for Alabama. Many of the hotels and tourist attractions depend on the groundwater as their water supply. The over-withdrawal of groundwater and saltwater intrustion will have a negative impact on the ecology, tourism and economy if groundwater resources are not properly monitored and managed. In this study a calibrated groundwater flow model was used to analyze the sustainability of groundwater resources at Fort Morgan Peninsula. Detailed flow budgets were prepared to check the various components of inflow and outflow under different water use and climatic conditions. The results indicated the locations where groundwater was over-pumped and subjected to saltwater intrusion, or will be subjected to saltwater intrusion under a range of projected water use and climatic conditions.

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Acknowledgments

Funding for this project was provided in part by Award Number NA#17OZ2324 through the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 (as amended), administered by the Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and in conjunction with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, State Lands Division. The authors would like to thank Leslie Turney of the ADEM Coastal Facilities Section and Blakeney Gillette at the Geological Survey of Alabama for providing valuable data. The authors would like to give special thanks Carl Ferarro of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, State Lands Division, for initiating this project and for his guidance throughout the process. Finally, the authors would like to give thanks to Joe Chandler and Blake Snodsmith for their background studies on the hydrogeology of southern Baldwin County, to Scott Clark of the Peninsula golf course for sharing information about groundwater wells around the golf course, and to Dan O’Donnell of O’Donnell and Associates Inc., for sharing his wealth of knowledge on the hydrogeology of Fort Morgan Peninsula and Baldwin County.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, 35487, USA

    Jie Liu, Kendall Rich & Chunmiao Zheng

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  1. Jie Liu
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  2. Kendall Rich
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  3. Chunmiao Zheng
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Correspondence to Jie Liu.

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Liu, J., Rich, K. & Zheng, C. Sustainability analysis of groundwater resources in a coastal aquifer, Alabama. Environ Geol 54, 43–52 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-007-0791-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-007-0791-x

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