Influence of Sea Level Rise on Multiobjective Management of Saltwater Intrusion in Coastal Aquifers

Abstract

This study demonstrates the influence of climate change-induced sea level rise on multiobjective saltwater intrusion management strategies in coastal aquifers. Three metamodels were developed from the solutions of a numerical simulation model of the coupled flow and salt transport processes in a coastal aquifer system. Results revealed that the proposed metamodels are capable of predicting density-dependent coupled flow and salt transport patterns quite accurately. Based on a comparison of the three methods, the best metamodel was selected as a computationally inexpensive substitute for the simulation model in the coupled simulation-optimization-based saltwater intrusion management model. To achieve computational efficiency, the optimization routine of the proposed management model was performed on a parallel computing platform. The performance of the proposed methodology was evaluated for an illustrative multilayered coastal aquifer system in which the effect of climate change-induced sea level rise was incorporated for the specified management period. Results show that the proposed saltwater intrusion management model provides acceptable, accurate, and reliable solutions while significantly improving computational efficiency in a coupled simulation-optimization methodology.