Understanding Saltwater Intrusion Processes: New Insights Learned from Laboratory Observations Coupled to Numerical Predictions

 

Sea level rise and reductions in groundwater flow due to droughts are the two important climate change-induced hydrological variables that can severely aggravate freshwater management problems in coastal aquifers. In this presentation we will present several laboratory and numerical datasets to illustrate the impacts of these two climate change-induced hydrological variables on saltwater intrusion processes. We will summarize the results of recent research efforts where we have tested three counterintuitive hypotheses related to the saltwater intrusion problem. In this presentation we will provide laboratory and/or numerical data to verify these hypotheses, and also discuss the new insights learned from these research studies.