Deltas are dynamic natural and socio-economic environments that are hypersensitive to the effects of urbanization, natural disasters and climate driven sea level change. Deltaic groundwater resources are often susceptible to degradation from saline water through seawater encroachment, tidal channel mixing and interaction with brackish paleowaters. The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna River delta, located in Bangladesh, is a particularly vulnerable area with an estimated twenty million coastal inhabitants directly affected by saline drinking water. The shallow groundwater of the coastal regions is primarily brackish with pockets of fresher water. A small scale hydrologic investigation of groundwater salinity beneath a tidal channel island was undertaken to explore possible hydrogeological explanations of the distribution of water salinities in the shallow aquifer. This study employs a combination of 3H and 14C dating, electromagnetic (EM) subsurface mapping, and a 2D solute transport model. The EM and isotope data suggests the development of freshwater lenses, sustained by meteoric recharge, above paleo-brackish estuarine water that was deposited during the Holocene. The transport model indicates an advection dominated system which is insensitive to small changes in aquifer architecture.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-07162014-195220 |
| Date | 25 July 2014 |
| Creators | Worland, Scott Campbell |
| Contributors | Dr. George Hornberger, Dr. Jessica Oster, Dr. Steve Goodbred |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-07162014-195220/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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