Underground barrier wall evaluation for controlling saltwater intrusion in sloping unconfined coastal aquifers

Barrier walls are considered one of the most effective methods for facilitating the retreat of saltwater intrusion (SWI). This research plans to examine the effect of using barrier walls for controlling of SWI in sloped unconfined aquifers. The sloping unconfined aquifer is considered with three different bed slopes. The SEAWAT model is implemented to simulate the SWI. For model validation, the numerical results of the seawater wedge at steady state were compared with the analytical solution. Increasing the ratio of flow barrier depth (d_b /d) forced the saltwater interface to move seaward and increased the repulsion ratio (R). With a positive sloping bed, further embedding the barrier wall from 0.2 to 0.7 caused R to increase from 0.3% to 59%, while it increased from 1.8% to 41.7% and from 3.4% to 46.9% in the case of negative and horizontal slopes, respectively. Embedding the barrier wall to a d_b /d value of more than 0.4 achieved a greater R value in the three bed-sloping cases. Installing the barrier wall near the saltwater side with greater depth contributed to the retreat of the SWI. With a negative bed slope, moving the barrier wall from X_b /L_o = 1.0 toward the saltwater side (X_b /L_o = 0.2) increased R from 7.21% to 68.75%, whereas R increased from 5.3% to 67% for the horizontal sloping bed and from 5.1% to 64% for the positive sloping bed. The numerical results for the Akrotiri coastal aquifer confirm that the embedment of the barrier wall significantly affects the controlling of SWI by increasing the repulsion ratio (R) and decreasing the SWI length ratio (L/L_a ). Cost-benefit analysis is recommended to determine the optimal design of barrier walls for increasing the cost-effectiveness of the application of barrier walls as a countermeasure for controlling and preventing SWI in sloped unconfined aquifers.