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Seawater Intrusion

Seawater intrusion occurs when excessive groundwater pumping near the coast causes freshwater aquifers to come into contact with higher density seawater, allowing seawater to migrate inland. This can be exacerbated by a lowering of freshwater recharge rates. Seawater intrusion poses risks to coastal groundwater supplies and agriculture/habitats. Management strategies aim to control the groundwater balance and include reducing pumping rates, injecting freshwater barriers, and intercepting intruding seawater flows.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
70 views22 pages

Seawater Intrusion

Seawater intrusion occurs when excessive groundwater pumping near the coast causes freshwater aquifers to come into contact with higher density seawater, allowing seawater to migrate inland. This can be exacerbated by a lowering of freshwater recharge rates. Seawater intrusion poses risks to coastal groundwater supplies and agriculture/habitats. Management strategies aim to control the groundwater balance and include reducing pumping rates, injecting freshwater barriers, and intercepting intruding seawater flows.

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bala
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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What is seawater intrusion?

Seawater intrusion is the migration of salt water into fresh


water aquifers Under the influence of ground water
development near the coast.
 A natural process that occurs in virtually all coastal
aquifers.

 It happens when the ground water level is lower than


the sea level.

 Defined as movement of seawater inland into fresh


groundwater aquifers, as a result of

 higher seawater density than freshwater

 groundwater withdrawal in coastal areas


How it occurs?

Pumping causes a cone of depression and...


…draws the salt water upwards into the well.
statistics
 The problem of saltwater intrusion was recognized as
early as the 19th century.

 The coastal areas of the world accommodate high


population with about 50% of the world population
lives within 60 Km of the shoreline.

 Nearly, half of the world’s major cities


(population > 5,00,000) are located within 50Km of
the coast.
Causes of seawater intrusion
 Overexploitation of the ground water on the coastal
areas is the main cause of Sea water intrusion

 sea water intrusion generally caused by


 Localized over pumping from the wells

 Boreholes and

 Infiltration galleries

 Commercial and urban development of recharge


areas, which reduces the permeable land surface
 It is a manmade problem caused by excessive
drainage of low-lying coastal areas.

 The destruction of natural barriers, that separate fresh


and salt water.

 Lowering the water tables by drainage canals.

 lowered rates of ground-water recharge in sewered or


urbanized areas, also could lead to saltwater intrusion
Conceptual model of seawater intrusion
Saltwater circulates from the sea to the transition zone
Induced by mixing processes at the transition zone,
saltwater then flows back to the sea

Ground-water flow patterns and the zone of dispersion in an idealized,


homogeneous coastal aquifer
 Constant monitoring of the salt-water interface is
necessary in determining the proper management
technique.

 proper management will prevent Salinization of


wells?

 Not preventing sea water intrusion

 But controlling sea water intrusion


Ghyben-Herzberg relation
 portions of the aquifer may contain saltwater while
other portions contain fresh water.

 Freshwater is less dense, and salt water is more dense.


So, fresh water floats on top of the saltwater

 Relationship based on density difference between


saltwater and fresh water is known as the Ghyben-
Herzberg relation
z = 40h

Weight of fresh Sea


h= constant
water at A=  (h+z) z
f
A
Weight of sea

Fresh water
Salt water water at A=  z
s
Finally we get the expression

Where, Vf = Fresh water density(1000Kg/cu.m)


Vs = Salt water density(1025Kg/cu.m)
h =water level above sea level
z = thickness of the fresh water below the sea
level

Change of sea water thickness depends on the change of


fresh water thickness.
Ill effects of seawater intrusion
 Salt-water intrusion from rising sea levels will reduce
the quality and quantity of freshwater supplies.

 Negative impacts on human activities such as,


 agriculture

 livestock

 commercial fishing operations


Intrusion caused by pumping may have severe impacts

 Salinisation of freshwater wells

 Salinisation of coastal lagoons, and springs

 Salinisation of soils through evaporation near the


capillary fringe

 Death of deep root trees


Environmental impacts associated with overexploitation
in coastal aquifers
Coastal
lagoon (ofen
brackish)

Sea
Fresh water
Salt water

Fresh water Sea

Salt water
Salt water
Control of Seawater Intrusion

Sea water enters easily, but it is hard to push back

A lot more freshwater may be needed to clean the


aquifer than was gained from overexploiting it.

1. Prevention of salinization is critical

1. Detailed characterisation of coastal aquifers is


essential for prevention and remediation
Control the water balance

• Reducing the
outflow Fresh water Salt water
facilitates
intrusion.

• Requires
distributing the
drawdown, many
small wells instead
of a big one.
Seawater intrusion barriers
 They are purported to prevent saltwater from flowing
inland. They can be of several types:

– Impermeable sub-surface barrier


– Negative hydraulic barrier
– Positive hydraulic barrier
– Mixed barrier
Impermeable sub-surface barrier

• Prevents the sea


water inflow into
the aquifer

• Construction cost
is more
Negative hydraulic barrier

• They work by pumping at the shore, so as to intercept


inflowing seawater.
• The way of managing coastal aquifers consists of pumping
boreholes until they get salinised.
Positive hydraulic barrier

• This will work by


injecting fresh
water so as to
raise water level
above the
equivalent sea
level.

• positive barriers
lose fresh water
to the sea
Mixed barriers
Fresh water Q
inyection well Q Salt water
pumping well

Fresh water
Salt water

• Inject freshwater on top


• Pump saltwater from bottom
• This method prevents the mixing of both types of
water in the borehole.
conclusions
 Seawater intrusion in Chennai
 PWD has proposed a pilot project to divert rainwater
from Taramani and its neighbouring places to
recharge the Besant Nagar and Thiruvanmiyur areas
 Besant Nagar had been affected due to intrusion of
seawater up to 500 metres. On the other hand,
Taramani was a clay-bedded area that allowed only
less water infiltration.
 The proposed project would serve two purposes
1. prevent water logging in chronic areas and
2. arrest seawater intrusion through artificial
recharge.
 We cannot prevent the sea water intrusion, but we can
control it by monitoring sea water intrusion.

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