Numerical Verification of the Solutions for Groundwater Flow in a Coastal Extensive Land Mass

Abstract

This paper reviews the analytical solutions for the impact of land reclamation on the ground water level and the saltwater interface with unconfined groundwater conditions in coastal aquifers. The applicability of the analytical solutions is somewhat limited by assumptions such as Dupuit-type flow and the Ghyben-Herzberg relation. Variable-density flow and solute transport simulations conducted by the numerical code FEFLOW were used to evaluate the accuracy of these analytical solutions. Three field-scale hypothetical cases were simulated for the numerical verification. The results show that a seepage face occurs in the numerical results rather than in the analytical solutions, but only minor difference occurs between the numerical and analytical solutions. This implies that the analytical solutions are reasonable despite the used assumptions.