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Quantification of tidal watertable overheight in a coastal unconfined aquifer

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Abstract

Tidal watertable fluctuations in a coastal aquifer are driven by tides on a moving boundary that varies with the beach slope. Based on a linearised one-dimensional Boussinesq model, tidal signals in the aquifer are analysed, focusing on the watertable overheight induced by the moving-boundary condition. The watertable overheight is an important parameter related to the estimation of submarine groundwater discharge (SGD). This note presents a new analytical approach to solving the Boussinesq equation with the Fourier-series expansion. Moreover, it is proved that the asymptote of watertable overheight normalised by the tidal amplitude is unit as a controlling parameter (( \(\varepsilon_0\))), combining the aquifer properties and tidal frequency, approaches infinity. Physically, this condition represents beaches of very low drainage capacity.

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Correspondence to Zhiyao Song.

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Song, Z., Li, L., Nielsen, P. et al. Quantification of tidal watertable overheight in a coastal unconfined aquifer. J Eng Math 56, 437–444 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10665-006-9052-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10665-006-9052-3

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