HR: 0800h
AN: H51B-0466    [Abstracts]
TI: Modeling the fate and transport of saltwater discharged into a well during a tsunami event
AU: * Goswami, R R
EM: rohitrg@gmail.com
AF: Department of Civil Engineering, Auburn University, 238 Harbert Engineering Center, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, United States
AU: Villholth, K G
EM: K.VILLHOLTH@cgiar.org
AF: International Water Management Institute (IWMI), 127, Sunil Mawatha, Pelawatte, Battaramulla, 2075, Sri Lanka
AU: Villholth, K G
EM: K.VILLHOLTH@cgiar.org
AF: Geological Institute, University of Copenhagen, ุster Voldgade 10, Copenhagen K, DK-1350, Denmark
AU: Clement, P T
EM: clement@auburn.edu
AF: Department of Civil Engineering, Auburn University, 238 Harbert Engineering Center, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, United States
AB: The 2004 Asian tsunami caused considerable contamination of groundwater resources in Sri Lanka. Open wells are widely used in the coastal areas of Sri Lanka for accessing potable water and sea water inundation through these open wells was potentially a major source of groundwater contamination. Various organizations tried to remediate the contamination in these wells through pumping. However, these efforts were ill-coordinated and in most cases the pumping was done without any technical information or scientific basis. There were no guidelines available for pumping wells after a saltwater event at that time. Therefore, there is a strong need for understanding the saltwater migration processes in order to develop a set of guidelines for well cleanup. Our project, funded by international agencies was jointly conducted by a multi-disciplinary team of international scientists. We conducted field and laboratory experiments by simulating tsunami-type inundation events in wells. The field experiments were conducted at a pristine location, unaffected by the tsunami, on the west coast of Sri Lanka. Field experiments are hard to analyze without a supporting investigation, therefore we performed laboratory experiments. Since all real world scenarios cannot be modeled through physical experiments due to resource (time, money and manpower) constraints, well calibrated numerical models are often used to simulate various different cases. The widely used numerical code, SEAWAT, was used to numerically simulate the laboratory experiments and to develop a well-calibrated numerical model. The numerical model was further used to perform a scenario analysis by varying the hydraulic parameters. In the presentation we will discuss the results of the investigations conducted by the team based in the USA that assisted in the development of physical and numerical experiments. In particular, we will present the effect of varying hydraulic parameters on the fate and transport of saltwater discharged into a well.
DE: 1831 Groundwater quality
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting