Saltwater intrusion modeling: Verification and application to an agricultural coastal arid region in Oman

This paper deals with numerical modeling of density-dependent flow of saltwater intrusion in coastal groundwater systems. We present the implementation of an approach to solve a moving boundary problem for a dynamic water table within an invariant finite element mesh. The model is successfully validated against laboratory experiment data for an unconfined, density-dependent benchmark. The validated software is applied to a regional-scale study area and sufficiently calibrated for a steady state of pre-development conditions. Transient mass transport scenario simulations show good concordance with salinity measurements satisfyingly supporting the model setup.