1. Large-scale, probabilistic salinity mapping using airborne electromagnetics for groundwater management in Zeeland, the Netherlands
- Author
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C Wim Dubelaar, Gualbert H. P. Oude Essink, Joost Delsman, Armin Menkovic, André Revil, Annika Steuer, Tommer Vermaas, Esther S. Van Baaren, P.S. Pauw, Perry G.B. de Louw, Marios Karaoulis, Willem Dabekaussen, Huite Bootsma, J.L. Gunnink, Bernhard Siemon, Uwe Meyer, Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (BGR), Institut des Sciences de la Terre (ISTerre), Institut Français des Sciences et Technologies des Transports, de l'Aménagement et des Réseaux (IFSTTAR)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut de recherche pour le développement [IRD] : UR219-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry])-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Grenoble Alpes [2016-2019] (UGA [2016-2019]), and Universiteit Utrecht
- Subjects
Hydrology ,airborne electromagnetics ,Electromagnetics ,Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment ,[SDU.STU.GP]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Geophysics [physics.geo-ph] ,0208 environmental biotechnology ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,groundwater salinity ,02 engineering and technology ,6. Clean water ,020801 environmental engineering ,fresh groundwater management ,Salinity ,Infiltration (hydrology) ,Overexploitation ,Pedotransfer function ,Environmental science ,Seawater ,uncertainty ,Groundwater ,Uncertainty analysis ,General Environmental Science - Abstract
International audience; Seawater intrusion has often resulted in scarce fresh groundwater resources in coastal lowlands. Careful management is essential to avoid the overexploitation of these vulnerable fresh groundwater resources, requiring detailed information on their spatial occurrence. Airborne electromagnetics (EM) has proved a valuable tool for efficient mapping of ground conductivity, as a proxy for fresh groundwater resources. Stakeholders are, however, interested in groundwater salinity, necessitating a translation of ground conductivity to groundwater salinity. This paper presents a methodology to construct a high-resolution (50 × 50 × 0.5 m 3) 3D voxel model of groundwater chloride concentration probability, based on a large-scale (1800 km 2 , 9640 flight line kilometres) airborne EM survey in the province of Zeeland, the Netherlands. Groundwater chloride concentration was obtained by combining pedotransfer functions with detailed lithological information. The methodology includes a Monte Carlo based forward uncertainty propagation approach to quantify the inherent uncertainty in the different steps. Validation showed good correspondence both with available groundwater chloride analyses, and with ground-based hydrogeophysical measurements. Our results show the limited occurrence of fresh groundwater in Zeeland, as 75% of the area lacks fresh groundwater within 15 m below ground surface. Fresh groundwater is mainly limited to the dune area and sandy creek ridges. In addition, significant fresh groundwater resources were shown to exist below saline groundwater, where infiltration of seawater during marine transgressions was hindered by the presence of clayey aquitards. The considerable uncertainty in our results highlights the importance of applying uncertainty analysis in airborne EM surveys. Uncertainty in our results mainly originated from the inversion and the 3D interpolation, and was largest at transition zones between fresh and saline groundwater. Reporting groundwater salinity instead of ground conductivity facilitated the rapid uptake of our results by relevant stakeholders, thereby supporting the necessary management of fresh groundwater resources in the region.
- Published
- 2018
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