The importance of coupled modelling of variably saturated groundwater flow-heat transport for assessing river–aquifer interactions

This paper focuses on the role of heat transport in river–aquifer interactions for the study area Hardhof located in the Limmat valley within the city of Zurich (Switzerland). On site there are drinking water production facilities of Zurich water supply, which pump groundwater and infiltrate bank filtration water from river Limmat. The artificial recharge by basins and by wells creates a hydraulic barrier against the potentially contaminated groundwater flow from the city. A three-dimensional finite element model of the coupled variably saturated groundwater flow and heat transport was developed. The hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer and the leakage coefficient of the riverbed were calibrated for isothermal conditions by inverse modelling, using the pilot point method. River–aquifer interaction was modelled using a leakage concept. Coupling was considered by temperature-dependent values for hydraulic conductivity and for leakage coefficients. The quality of the coupled model was tested with the help of head and temperature measurements. Good correspondence between simulated and measured temperatures was found for the three pumping wells and seven piezometers. However, deviations were observed for one pumping well and two piezometers, which are situated in an area, where zones with important hydrogeological heterogeneity are expected. A comparison of simulation results with isothermal leakage coefficients with those of temperature-dependent leakage coefficients shows that the temperature dependence is able to reduce the head residuals close to the river by up to 30%. The largest improvements are found in the zone, where the river stage is considerably higher than the groundwater level, which is in correspondence with the expectations. Additional analyses also showed that the linear leakage concept cannot reproduce the seepage flux in a downstream section during flood events. It was found that infiltration is enhanced during flood events, which is attributed to additional infiltration areas.