Unstructured-grid approach to develop high-fidelity groundwater model to understand groundwater flow and storage responses to excessive groundwater withdrawals in the Southern Hills aquifer system in southeastern Louisiana (USA)

Study region

The Southern Hills aquifer system in the Louisiana Capital Area Groundwater Conservation District (CAGCD), USA.

Study focus

The Southern Hills aquifer system provides abundant groundwater for public and industrial supplies in the CAGCD. Groundwater depletion, saltwater intrusion, and land subsidence are potential concerns due to prolonged excessive groundwater withdrawals. This study develops a high-fidelity groundwater flow model utilizing a complex unstructured grid to investigate groundwater flow and storage responses to excessive groundwater withdrawals for the Southern Hills aquifer system in the CAGCD. The groundwater model incorporates the Mississippi River alluvial aquifer down to the Miocene sands extending to depths around 1 km.

New hydrological insights

Groundwater modeling results indicate large cones of depression in the Evangeline and Jasper formations in the Baton Rouge area due to prolonged groundwater withdrawals. Low-permeability faults are inferred by significant groundwater level difference across the faults. While local groundwater storage depletion in deeper aquifers is evident, overall estimated groundwater storage changes of the Southern Hills aquifer system in the CAGCD are close to zero in the past two decades, indicating insignificant groundwater storage changes. This is attributed to dominant interactions between the major rivers and the shallower alluvial aquifer. In addition, the simulated groundwater storage changes exhibit patterns similar to those derived by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) model that has been used in evaluation of groundwater depletion in many regional studies.