Studying the effect of sea level rise on nuisance flooding due to groundwater in a coastal urban area with aging infrastructure

In this paper, we present a study focused on the effect of sea level rise (SLR) on nuisance flooding due to groundwater (or groundwater flooding). A densely populated coastal urban area along a river estuary was selected for this work. We developed a three-dimensional (3D) shallow unconfined aquifer model of the site. We calibrated it with field measurements and used it to predict areas prone to groundwater flooding under different SLR scenarios. Results show that the water table is controlled by the river level as well as by aging infrastructure such as aging combined sewer and drinking water networks which drain and recharge the unconfined aquifer. Steady-state simulations run considering current river level scenarios show a very shallow aquifer throughout the area and simulations under different SLR scenarios predict that the water table starts to emerge from the ground in the low-lying parts of the site for 0.4 m of SLR. Overall, this work suggests that groundwater in coastal urban areas is regulated by anthropogenic and natural systems and is susceptible to climate change contributing to inundation together with marine flooding and intense precipitation.