Stochastic Simulation of Seawater Intrusion into Freshwater Aquifers

Groundwater flow and transport in aquifers are strongly influenced by the geological heterogeneity at various scales. The erratic nature of the hydro geological parameters and the insufficient information about the spatial distribution suggests, a description of these parameters in a probabilistic context rather than a deterministic one. Theories based on homogeneous assumption can lead to serious errors. This paper presents a methodology for the effect of heterogeneity on seawater intrusion modelling based on stochastic simulation of the system. The heterogeneity has been modelled by coupling Monte-Carlo simulation to a seawater intrusion model. SEAWAT was used as a simulation model. This study leads to a better understanding of the transport mechanism in heterogeneous formation in coastal aquifers. The applicability of the developed methodology is illustrated by a case study. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.