GroMoPo Metadata for Chennai Surface-Groudnwater-Coastal model

The objective of this research is to investigate the best management options for mitigating seawater intrusion through real-time coupling between rainfall-runoff, infiltration, surface water and groundwater system. The amount of runoff and discharge from sub-catchment after rainfall was first simulated by the rainfall-runoff model. This simulated discharge was connected with the regional surface water model to simulate the water level in the major rivers of the area. The simulated water levels in the rivers were later given as the river stage to the groundwater model through an interface module. The effect of seawater intrusion was assessed by four scenarios such as construction of additional check dams, 1 m increase in crest level of existing check dam, rejuvenation of defunct water bodies, and termination of pumping. The predicted result shows that there is an increase in the groundwater head of about 4.2 m in the unconfined aquifer and 7.5 m in the semi-confined aquifer by the end of 2030. The chloride concentration is decreased by about 1100 mg/l and 800 mg/l in the unconfined and semi-confined aquifers, respectively, by the end of 2030 with scenario 4. The areal extent has been decreased to the coast of around 5 km with scenario 4. This clearly explains that the effect of seawater intrusion is reduced by implementing mitigating measures. Finally, the real-time integrating model demonstrated that the level of groundwater is increased and the concentration of chloride decreased which helps to restore aquifer and solve the seawater intrusion problems in this study area.