Analysis of the advancement of seawater intrusion in coastal aquifer system

ABSTRACT The groundwater overexploitation can cause the collapse of coastal aquifers. In this scope, this study evaluated the behavior of the salt wedge in part of the Barreiras/Marituba system aquifer present on the coast of the Metropolitan Region of Maceió, Alagoas, using hydrogeochemical modeling and indexes. The model was calibrated for both the underground flow and the total dissolved solids concentration, obtaining a correlation coefficient of 0.764 and 0.682, respectively. Two different scenarios were analyzed, which allowed verifying the effect of the exploitation of groundwater in the salt wedge for a projection of 10 years. The first considered the existing operation until 2015, without any additional pumping. Results shows that saline wedge advanced in two areas of the domain and another site was retreated, in addition to the formation of cones with vertical rise of the sea water. The second scenario, besides the already existing waterworks licenses, was also added by the installation of 36 hypothetical pumping wells, based in the city growth. However, in this case, it was not possible to visualize significant variations in the melting zone in relation to the first scenario. The analysis of hydrogeochemical indices shows to higher concentrations of chlorides in the region near the Atlantic Ocean line, with little influence of nitrate and, in general, indicated the existence of sea water intrusion.