Reply on RC2

Abstract

Watertable fluctuations and seawater intrusion are characteristic features of coastal unconfined aquifers. The dynamic effective porosity due to watertable fluctuations is analyzed and then a modified (empirical) expression is proposed for the dynamic effective porosity based on a dimensionless parameter related to the watertable fluctuation frequency. After validation with both experimental data and numerical simulations, the new expression is implemented in existing Boussinesq equations and a numerical model, allowing for examination of the effects of the dynamic effective porosity on watertable fluctuations and seawater intrusion in coastal unconfined aquifers, respectively. Results show that the Boussinesq equation accounting for the vertical flow in the saturated zone and dynamic effective porosity can accurately predict experimental dispersion relations (that all existing theories fail to predict), highlighting the importance of the dynamic effective porosity in modeling watertable fluctuations in coastal unconfined aquifers. This in turn confirms the utility of the real-valued expression of the dynamic effective porosity. An outcome is that the phase lag between the total moisture (above the watertable) and watertable height measured in laboratory experiments using vertical soil columns (1D systems) can be ignored when predicting watertable fluctuations in coastal unconfined aquifers (2D systems). A dynamic effective porosity that is, by comparison, smaller than the soil porosity leads to a reduction in vertical water exchange between the saturated and vadose zones and hence watertable waves can propagate further landward. The dynamic effective porosity further plays a critical role in simulations of seawater intrusion, since it predicts a more landward seawater-freshwater interface and a higher position of the upper saline plume.