Abstract. In the past, the coastal leaky aquifer system, including an unconfined aquifer on the top, a confined aquifer at the bottom, and an aquitard in between, was commonly assumed to be homogeneous and of an infinite extent in the horizontal direction. The leaky aquifer system may however be nonhomogeneous and of a finite extent due to variations in depositional and post depositional processes. Thus, in the paper, the leaky aquifer system is divided into several horizontal regions for simulating the heterogeneity involved in both the confined aquifer and aquitard. A one-dimensional analytical model is developed for describing the head fluctuation in such a heterogeneous leaky aquifer system. The head of the upper unconfined aquifer is assumed to remain constant. It is found that both the length and location of the discontinuous aquitards presented in the coastal area have significant effects on the amplitude and phase shift of the head fluctuation in the confined aquifer. In addition, the influences of both the heterogeneous aquifer and aquitard on the spatial head distribution are investigated.
Anthropogenic Venice uplift by seawater pumping into a heterogeneous aquifer system
