Assessment of Salinity in Fresh and Saline Aquifers in the Coastal Area of Jiangsu Province

Abstract

Abstract Within the littoral alluvial expanse of the Yangtze River Delta, the phreatic zone encompassing the aquifer represents a prolific ecosystem, which has been subjected to an enduring epoch of marine sediment deposition, and is conspicuously susceptible to the escalating phenomenon of urbanization. The prodigious abstraction of the groundwater reserves has engendered a recent encroachment of seawater and leakage of connate saline water, culminating in the salinization of freshwater sources. For an incisive comprehension of the gradations of salinity (viz., fresh, brackish, and saline) and to execute evaluations of the groundwater’s quality, the spatial distributions of the total dissolved solids (TDS) were interpolated employing bifurcate power functions that establish a relationship between the Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES)-predicated transformation average resistivity and the assayed TDS from the systematically sampled boreholes corresponding to the aquifer stratum. The scrutiny of the groundwater’s physicochemical attributes is of paramount significance to efficaciously steer the exploitation and management of hydric resources within the area under investigation.