TY - JOUR
T1 - Comparative study of methods for delineating the wellhead protection area in an unconfined coastal aquifer
AU - Liu, Yue
AU - Weisbrod, Noam
AU - Yakirevich, Alexander
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments: This research was supported by China Scholarship Council and the Council for Higher Education, Israel. Thanks due to Noam Dvory for providing field data of the Nahariya site and to Mikhail Kuznetzov for offering modeling skills supervision.
Funding Information:
Funding: This research was funded by Maccabi Carasso, grant number 87382911.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by the authors.
PY - 2019/6/1
Y1 - 2019/6/1
N2 - Various delineation methods, ranging from simple analytical solutions to complex numerical models, have been applied for wellhead protection area (WHPA) delineation. Numerical modeling is usually regarded as the most reliable method, but the uncertainty of input parameters has always been an obstacle. This study aims at examining the results from different WHPA delineation methods and addressing the delineation uncertainty of numerical modeling due to the uncertainty from input parameters. A comparison and uncertainty analysis were performed at two pumping sites-a single well and a wellfield consisting of eight wells in an unconfined coastal aquifer in Israel. By appointing numerical modeling as the reference method, a comparison between different methods showed that a semi-analytical method best fits the reference WHPA, and that analytical solutions produced overestimated WHPAs in unconfined aquifers as regional groundwater flow characteristics were neglected. The results from single well and wellfield indicated that interferences between wells are important for WHPA delineation, and thus, that only semi-analytical and numerical modelling are recommended for WHPA delineation at wellfields. Stochastic modeling was employed to analyze the uncertainty of numerical method, and the probabilistic distribution of WHPAs, rather a deterministic protection area, was generated with considering the uncertain input hydrogeological parameters.
AB - Various delineation methods, ranging from simple analytical solutions to complex numerical models, have been applied for wellhead protection area (WHPA) delineation. Numerical modeling is usually regarded as the most reliable method, but the uncertainty of input parameters has always been an obstacle. This study aims at examining the results from different WHPA delineation methods and addressing the delineation uncertainty of numerical modeling due to the uncertainty from input parameters. A comparison and uncertainty analysis were performed at two pumping sites-a single well and a wellfield consisting of eight wells in an unconfined coastal aquifer in Israel. By appointing numerical modeling as the reference method, a comparison between different methods showed that a semi-analytical method best fits the reference WHPA, and that analytical solutions produced overestimated WHPAs in unconfined aquifers as regional groundwater flow characteristics were neglected. The results from single well and wellfield indicated that interferences between wells are important for WHPA delineation, and thus, that only semi-analytical and numerical modelling are recommended for WHPA delineation at wellfields. Stochastic modeling was employed to analyze the uncertainty of numerical method, and the probabilistic distribution of WHPAs, rather a deterministic protection area, was generated with considering the uncertain input hydrogeological parameters.
KW - Groundwater protection
KW - Uncertainty analysis
KW - Wellhead protection area (WHPA)
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85068849873&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/w11061168
DO - 10.3390/w11061168
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85068849873
SN - 2073-4441
VL - 11
JO - Water (Switzerland)
JF - Water (Switzerland)
IS - 6
M1 - 1168
ER -