Simulation of groundwater level in a coastal aquifer

Abstract

The groundwater levels can have a significant impact on structures and infrastructures of coastal areas. The simulation of the hydraulic behavior of coastal aquifers is very important due to its specific boundary conditions. In this study, the groundwater level in the Bandar-e-Gaz coastal aquifer in the Gorgan Gulf region located in northern Iran is simulated using the MODFLOW mathematical model. The modeling of the coastal aquifer behavior carried out in two calibrations (steady and unsteady states). The validation periods (unsteady state), the mean absolute error (MAE) and mean bias error (MBE) were used to evaluate the results. The values of MAE and MBE criteria for the steady state were 0.31 (m) and –0.08 (m), while the average of these criteria in the unsteady state in calibration period were 0.46 and –0.39, and in the validation period were 0.42 (m) and –0.31 (m), respectively. The mentioned results confirm the precision of the model for the entire simulation period, they also indicate that the simulation has a limited underestimation behavior. Moreover, it shows that the precision of the results has a negligible variability, which means the simulation also has considerable reliability. The highest and lowest amount of error in the winter and summer seasons are in accordance with the lowest and highest seawater levels, and it shows the significant sea effect on the hydraulic behavior of the coastal aquifer.