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Experimental Study of Tidal Effects on Coastal Groundwater and Pollutant Migration

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Abstract

The problem of current urban groundwater pollution is very serious, which has influenced social development and people’s daily life. Around the land-sea interface, tide obviously changes nearshore the groundwater flow regime and makes the pollutant migration process become more complex. In the present study, the effect of tide-induced groundwater table fluctuations and on the pollutants migration in beach aquifers is investigated by constructing a two-dimensional sand trough physical experimental model. The model considered brackish-water density differences and the tide by controlling experimental medium properties and boundary conditions. The results showed that the groundwater table fluctuation cycle is the same as the tidal cycle and the fluctuation lag time increases linearly with the increase of the offshore distance. Tidal fluctuation flattens brackish-freshwater interface, widens the dispersion zone, and generates the upper saline and the freshwater belt. Time lag corresponding relationships between saline water and tidal fluctuation was observed. With the pollutant approaching the saline water area, the profile of the pollutant migration is gradually developed into a spindle shape until the strip shape, and the pollutant enters the saline water body along the curved edge of the upper part of the saline water. The transverse dispersion of pollutants is larger than the longitudinal dispersion in a tidal cycle and its outline presents a strip shape development. No mixing or exchange between the pollutants and the saline water body happened during the whole process. This study can provide scientific references for nearshore groundwater pollution prevention and control in the future.

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Acknowledgements

This research is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41372240, 41471392, 41672230, 41611130047) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (20153772, 20161208).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

    Shuguang Liu, Chaomeng Dai, Bo Tan, Hui Shen, Guihui Zhong & Sha Lou

  2. Key Laboratory of Yangtze River Water Environment, Ministry of Education, Tongji University, No.1239 Siping Road, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Shuguang Liu

  3. Power China HuaDong Engineering Corporation Limited, HangZhou, Zhejiang Province, China

    An Tao

  4. Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University, GSP-1,1 Leninskiye Gory, Moscow, 119991, Russia

    S. Chalov & R. Chalov

Authors
  1. Shuguang Liu
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  2. An Tao
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  3. Chaomeng Dai
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  4. Bo Tan
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  5. Hui Shen
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  6. Guihui Zhong
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  7. Sha Lou
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  8. S. Chalov
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  9. R. Chalov
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Correspondence to Chaomeng Dai.

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Liu, S., Tao, A., Dai, C. et al. Experimental Study of Tidal Effects on Coastal Groundwater and Pollutant Migration. Water Air Soil Pollut 228, 163 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-017-3326-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-017-3326-4

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