Coastal Groundwater Discharge Simulations/Models for Mobile Bay

Terrestrial groundwater discharges to coastal drainage networks as baseflow and to coastal waters as fresh submarine groundwater discharge. If groundwater discharge comprises a large portion of inflow or has a different composition than the receiving waters, these groundwater fluxes can strongly influence the water quality of coastal waters. However, the spatial distribution of such fluxes makes quantifying the net effect of groundwater discharge difficult with field data. Furthermore, future climate conditions may change how groundwater interacts with surface water through changes in precipitation, evapotranspiration, and sea level. Mobile Bay is at the nexus of anthropogenic-driven sea level rise and water quality issues, making it an ideal study location. Therefore, we are developing and calibrating MODFLOW-based groundwater flow models using scripted workflows within the Python programming language and the FloPy library to investigate three questions: 1) How much groundwater discharge occurs, 2) where does the groundwater discharge occur, and 3) how do environmental variations associated with climate change affect the location and volume of groundwater discharge to Mobile Bay. By answering these three questions, we will provide valuable knowledge regarding variations in the magnitude and location of coastal groundwater discharge due to possible environmental changes.