Experimental Study of Tidal Effects on Coastal Groundwater and Pollutant Migration

• Published in: Water, air, and soil pollution air, and soil pollution, 2017-04, Vol.228 (4), p.1, Article 163
• Main Authors: Liu, Shuguang, Tao, An, Dai, Chaomeng, Tan, Bo, Shen, Hui, Zhong, Guihui, Lou, Sha, Chalov, S., Chalov, R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aquifers; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Boundary conditions; Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts; Earth and Environmental Science; Environment; Environmental monitoring; Groundwater; Groundwater flow; Groundwater pollution; Hydrocarbons; Hydrogeology; Laboratories; Particle size; Pollutants; Pollution dispersion; Pollution prevention; Saline water; Saline-freshwater interfaces; Seawater; Simulation; Soil Science & Conservation; Tidal effects; Tides; Water bodies; Water Quality/Water Pollution; Water table
• ISSN: 0049-6979; 1573-2932
• DOI: 10.1007/s11270-017-3326-4

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.