About one third of the world´s population lives within 100 km of the oceanic coast. On the one hand, this implies a potential pollution threat of near-coast environments through submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) by e.g. nutrients, organic compounds and heavy-metals. On the other hand, the freshwater bodies are commonly used for water supply, which potentially incurs the intrusion or up-coning of saltwater (SWI). Increasing pressure on these freshwater sources due to climate change, population growth, and industrial and agricultural water demands will endanger a secure water supply in many parts of the world.
We envisage a session which includes different aspects of groundwater dynamics (exfiltration and infiltration) and quality in coastal zones and oceanic islands. The focus is set on 1) the application of new and advanced techniques to detect and investigate SGD and SWI, to improve our process understanding but likewise 2) on resulting consequences and potentials.
The session will also consider contributions on inland salinization, e.g. caused by water logging, basin brines and salt deposits.

Sub-topics could be, but are not limited to:
• Numerical modeling and experiments of variable-density groundwater flow
• Geophysical techniques for freshwater-saltwater settings, including terrestrial and airborne methods
• Tracking the spatial and temporal development of salinization through field observations and monitoring techniques
• Hydrogeochemical processes at the freshwater/saltwater interface
• Management of fresh groundwater resources on islands and in the coastal zone in times of climate change and increasing water demand
• (Pilot) studies on mitigative and adaptive measures to combat salinization, e.g. Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) in the coastal zone