Determination of urban groundwater pollution in alluvial aquifer using linked process models considering urban water cycle

SummaryThis paper presents the results of the 5th FP project AISUWRS (Assessing and Improving the Sustainability of Urban Water Resources and Systems) which aimed to assess the impact of the urban water infrastructure to underlying or nearby aquifers with the urban water balance modelling approach – a chain of different models that handle with contaminant fluxes and the movement of contaminants from the urban infrastructure into the underlying aquifer. An existing urban water management model UVQ was linked to a model for sewer infiltration and exfiltration (NEIMO), as well as unsaturated zone models (SLeakI/POSI, UL_FLOW) with existing numerical groundwater models. The linked process models offer the prospect of better quantification of urban water balance and contaminant loads, including improved estimates of total recharge and its components in urban areas. Once the model framework has been set up for a selected city, it can easily be updated in the future and it can be used for other purposes like planning of local remediation measures in the vicinity of individual contaminant spillages. This paper describes the application and results of the urban water model chain for the city of Ljubljana, which is the capital of Slovenia. The results from this study suggest that residential land-uses in urban areas with thick unsaturated zone may have significantly smaller impact on the groundwater than agriculture or industry. This can be seen as a speculative understanding of the groundwater pollutions problems. In this respect, use of sustainable urban development systems like on-site infiltration of roof runoff and improved sewer control and standards could result in better groundwater quality.