Groundwater Discharge to the Bay of Bengal: Hydrological, Societal, and Environmental Implication to the Ocean
The interaction of two of the largest hydrological systems, groundwater and seawater, takes place along the coast, either by seawater intrusion to land (SWI) or submarine groundwater discharges (SGD). Groundwater discharge from the coastal aquifers to the
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Groundwater Discharge to the Bay of Bengal: Hydrological, Societal, and Environmental Implication to the Ocean Palash Debnath and Abhijit Mukherjee
Abstract The interaction of two of the largest hydrological systems, groundwater and seawater, takes place along the coast, either by seawater intrusion to land (SWI) or submarine groundwater discharges (SGD). Groundwater discharge from the coastal aquifers to the oceans takes place when the elevation of the water table of coastal aquifers is higher than the mean sea level, varying seasonally and tidally. SGD provides a route for escape of a large portion of the usable groundwater resource, solutes, and contaminants to sea. The chemical evolution and redox transformation of SGD are poorly understood, especially at the subsurface freshwater discharge zone. Globally, there have been several studies to understand the coastal hydrodynamics of the SGD; however, there is a serious lack of such knowledge from the coastal aquifers of the Indian subcontinent. The present chapter demonstrates the details of groundwater discharge to the Bay of Bengal, India (BOB). Our study result shows that SGD can add a huge amount of solutes and nutrients to the BOB, which is likely to have a great impact on BOB ecosystem. Hence, understanding the dynamics of SGD in coastal parts of India is an extremely interesting scientific question along with its societal importance and environmental
P. Debnath A. Mukherjee (&) Department of Geology and Geophysics, Institute of Technology (IIT)—Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, West Bengal, India e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] P. Debnath e-mail: [email protected] P. Debnath National Institute of Hydrology Roorkee, Roorkee 247667, Uttarakhand, India A. Mukherjee School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)—Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, West Bengal, India A. Mukherjee Applied Policy Advisory to Hydrogeosciences Group, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)—Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, West Bengal, India © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018 A. Mukherjee (ed.), Groundwater of South Asia, Springer Hydrogeology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3889-1_28
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implications. It is expected that the knowledge and information provided in this chapter would enhance the understanding of the coastal hydrodynamics in site-specific scales and extrapolated, larger scales along the BOB and would be useful in making regional coastal management plan or integrated coastal management plan.
Keywords Submarine groundwater discharge Bay of Bengal Coastal hydrodynamics Solutes and nutrients Ecosystem
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Significance of SGD in Context of India
Groundwater discharge is the most important pathway connecting two largest hydrological systems, groundwater (GW) and seawater (SW). Surface water mainly river and stream inputs to the ocean is visible and also added a large amount of solutes to the ocean (Mulligan and Charette 2009). Hence, over the last years the influences of
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