Numerical Modeling of the Effect of Sand Dam on Groundwater Flow

Abstract

Sand dam is a flow barrier commonly built on small or medium size sandy rivers to accumulate sand and store excess water for later use or increase the water table. The effectiveness of sand dam in increasing the water table and the amount of extractable groundwater is tested using numerical models. Two models are developed to test the hypothesis. The first model is to simulate the groundwater flow in a pseudo-natural aquifer system with the hydraulically connected river. The second model, a modified version of the first model, is constructed with a sand dam, which raises the riverbed by 2 m. In both models, the effect of groundwater abstraction is tested by varying the pumping rate. As the model results show the groundwater after the construction of the sand dam has increased significantly and the amount of extractable groundwater is also increased by many folds. Most importantly, in the second model, unlike the pseudo-natural aquifer system, the groundwater abstraction does not have a significant effect on the water table.