Discriminating groundwater salinization processes in coastal aquifers of southeastern India: geophysical, hydrogeochemical and numerical modeling approach

S. Gopinath, K. Srinivasamoorthy (), K. Saravanan and R. Prakash
Additional contact information
S. Gopinath: Pondicherry University
K. Srinivasamoorthy: Pondicherry University
K. Saravanan: Pondicherry University
R. Prakash: Pondicherry University

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, 2019, vol. 21, issue 5, No 19, 2443-2458

Abstract: Abstract Groundwater salinization in coastal aquifers is mainly due to severe groundwater extraction, global sea level rise, usage of agricultural fertilizers and pesticides, waste disposal and influences of industrial and domestic effluents. The study area is the Nagapattinam and Karaikal coastal aquifers, noticeable with quick growth in population, severe industrial and urban activities resulting in groundwater abstraction ensuing deeper water level and salinization. Attempt has been made to discriminate sources of groundwater salinization using geophysical, hydrochemical and modeling techniques. The electrical resistivity survey isolated resistivity ranges between 0.5 and 1.5 Ω m as seawater intruded. Groundwater samples were collected for two different seasons and analyzed for major, minor and rare earth elements. The results signify higher conductivity (12,430.0 μS/cm), chloride (5060.0 mg/L) and sodium (1330.0 mg/L), indicating the saline nature of groundwater. The normalized REE patterns in groundwater exhibit enrichment of HREEs than LREEs due to higher mobility. The SEAWAT code predicted seawater intrusion along the eastern portion of the study area.

Keywords: Coastal aquifers; Hydrochemistry; Resistivity; REE; Saline intrusion; SEAWAT (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-018-0143-x Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:endesu:v:21:y:2019:i:5:d:10.1007_s10668-018-0143-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10668

DOI: 10.1007/s10668-018-0143-x

Access Statistics for this article

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development is currently edited by Luc Hens

More articles in Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().