『Abstract
Regional degradation of groundwater resources by nitrate has
become one of the main challenges for water managers worldwide.
Regulations have been defined to reverse observed nitrate trends
in groundwater bodies, such as the Water Framework Directive and
the Groundwater Daughter Directive in the European Union. In such
a context, one of the main challenges remains to develop efficient
approaches for groundwater quality assessment at regional scale,
including quantitative numerical modelling, as a decision support
for groundwater management. A new approach combining the use of
environmental tracers and the innovative ‘Hybrid Finite Element
Mixing Cell’ (HFEMC) modelling technique is developed to study
and forecast the groundwater quality at the regional scale, with
an application to a regional chalk aquifer in the Geer basin in
Belgium. Tritium data and nitrate time series are used to produce
a conceptual model for regional groundwater flow and contaminant
transport in the combined unsaturated and saturated zones of the
chalk aquifer. This shows that the spatial distribution of the
contamination in the Geer basin is essentially linked to the hydrodynamic
conditions prevailing in the basin, more precisely to groundwater
age and mixing and not to the spatial patterns of land use or
local hydrodispersive processes. A three-dimensional regional
scale groundwater flow and solute transport model is developed.
It is able to reproduce the spatial patterns of tritium and nitrate
and the observed nitrate trends in the chalk aquifer and it is
used to predict the evolution of nitrate concentrations in the
basin. The modelling application shows that the global inertia
of groundwater quality is strong in the basin and trend reversal
is not expected to occur before the 2015 deadline fixed by the
European Water Framework Directive. The expected time required
for trend reversal ranges between 5 and more than 50 years, depending
on the location in the basin and the expected reduction in nitrate
application. To reach a good chemical status, nitrate concentrations
in the infiltrating water should be reduced as soon as possible
below 50 mg/l; however, even in that case, more than 50 years
is needed to fully reverse upward trends.
Keywords: Nitrate; Groundwater; Modelling; Chalk; Environmental
tracers; European Water Framework Directive』
1. Introduction
2. Regional conceptual model for nitrate in the Geer basin
2.1. Geographical, geological and hydrogeological context
2.2. Time and spatial distribution of nitrate in groundwater
2.3. Tritium survey
3. Regional scale groundwater transport modelling in the Geer
basin
3.1. Modelling concepts
3.2. Conceptual model and discretisation choices for the Geer
basin
3.3. Calibration of the groundwater flow model
3.4. Calibration of the solute transport model
3.5. Forecasting nitrate trends using the numerical model
4. Conclusions
Acknowledgements
References