title: Assessment of the impact of sea-level rise due to climate change on coastal groundwater discharge.
abstract: An assessment of sea intrusion into coastal aquifers as a consequence of local sea-level rise (LSLR) due to climate change was carried out at Murgia and Salento in southern Italy. The interpolation of sea-level measurements at three tide-gauge stations was performed during the period of 2000 to 2014. The best fit of measurements shows an increasing rate of LSLR ranging from 4.4mm/y to 8.8mm/y, which will result in a maximum LSLR of approximately 2m during the 22nd century. The local rate of sea-level rise matches recent 21st and 22nd century projections of mean global sea-level rise determined by other researchers, which include increased melting rates of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, the effect of ocean thermal expansion, the melting of glaciers and ice caps, and changes in the quantity of stored land water. Subsequently, Ghyben-Herzberg's equation for the freshwater/saltwater interface was rewritten in order to determine the decrease in groundwater discharge due to the maximum LSLR. Groundwater flow simulations and ArcGIS elaborations of digital elevation models of the coast provided input data for the Ghyben-Herzberg calculation under the assumption of head-controlled systems. The progression of seawater intrusion due to LSLR suggests an impressive depletion of available groundwater discharge during the 22nd century, perhaps as much as 16.1% of current groundwater pumping for potable water in Salento.
authors.affiliation: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Ricerca sulle Acque, Reparto di Chimica e Tecnologia delle Acque, via Francesco De Blasio, 5, 70132 Bari, Italy. Electronic address: costantino.masciopinto@ba.irsa.cnr.it.
authors.forename: Costantino
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Masciopinto
authors.affiliation: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Ricerca sulle Acque, Reparto di Chimica e Tecnologia delle Acque, via Francesco De Blasio, 5, 70132 Bari, Italy. Electronic address: serena.liso@ba.irsa.cnr.it.
authors.forename: Isabella Serena
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Liso
keywords: Climate change; Fractured aquifer; Modeling; Sea-level rise; Seawater intrusion