Weijiang YU

Research Project: Optimal control strategies for seawater intrusion in island aquifers under climate change and sea level rise. 

Intensive pumping activities causes the seaward hydraulic gradient between the water table and sea level drops, leading to the landward advancement of saltwater in aquifers and degeneration of subsurface freshwater resources, termed as seawater intrusion. Island underground freshwater is more fragile to be contaminated by saltwater under anthropogenic activities.

This project is based on the simulation-optimization system to provide an optimal pumping strategy to encounter a balance between local water demand and environmental sustainability, with considering the climate change and sea level rise. To circumvent expensive computational costs of simulations, this research is going to develop a general guideline for using the surrogate models to substitute numerical simulations in the island groundwater management.