| Despite the importance of understanding the links among the physical, chemical, and biological processes in the coastal zone, relatively few studies have investigated the physics of groundwater flow and transport at the land-ocean margin. This study characterizes the spatial and temporal variations of hydraulic properties and groundwater processes in permeable coastal aquifers, with special emphasis on a phreatic aquifer in the Georgia Bight. Specific objectives of the research include: (1) constraining aquifer properties and evaluating the static and dynamic parameters that control groundwater processes; (2) correlating hydrofacies and groundwater salinity regimes to measurable geophysical parameters; and (3) quantifying the dynamic response of coastal aquifers to forcing on various spatial and temporal scales. Among the innovations of this work are linkages between sediment clogging at the upland-estuary interface and submarsh flow pathways, new spectral analyses and stochastic solutions for tidal pumping of phreatic aquifers, and original nonlinear inversions of electromagnetic conductivity data in high salinity terrain. The integration of hydrologic and geophysical data constrains groundwater flow pathways, the scales of aquifer heterogeneity, and the degree of interaction between surface water and groundwater more completely than studies that are based exclusively on either hydrologic or geophysical approaches. |
