Hydrogeological Model for Management and Recovery of Groundwater Resources of Latvia
2011
Aivars Spalviņš, Uldis Nulle

The countries of the world and of the European Union are developing hydrogeological models (HM) where, by means of computer modeling, the information necessary for the groundwater management is obtained. In 1996, the Riga Technical University (RTU), upon assignment of the former Latvian Geological Service, established regional HM REMO for the central part of Latvia. This project was the first attempt to create a computer based tool for management of groundwater resources for the most urbanized part of Latvia. REMO does not match demands of modern management, as the model includes only a part of Latvia and its plane approximation step 4000 meters is too large. In 2010, RTU started the project of HM that covers the 475km300km area which includes the whole territory of Latvia and border areas of neighboring countries. The project is co financed by the European Fund of Regional Development. HM account for 25 geological layers and its plane approximation step is 500 meters. HM will be established, during 2010-2012, as the element of the Latvian Shared Environmental Information System. It is supported by the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Centre (LEGMC). HM comprises geological and hydrogeological information provided by the centre. For the current HM version, only Latvia and the Gulf of Riga constitute the HM active area, as for the present, no cross border modeling projects exist. However, HM is open for such projects, if a neighboring country provides data for activating the HM area of interest. To ensure compatibility with models of other countries, the commercial program Groundwater Vistas (GV) is used for running HM. This program is being regularly updated. It contains software tools applied for groundwater modelling worldwide. For the establishment and calibration of HM, innovative methods are used: the map of the ground surface elevations (digital relief) serves as a boundary condition; the aeration zone is a formal aquitard; the actual geometry of HM may not be used in the initial phase of the model establishment. One of the most important steps is the creation of the digital relief map of Latvia for proposes of modeling. Unfortunately, the available maps contain errors that must be eliminated. None of existing digital relief maps incorporates satisfactory the hydrographical network (rivers, lakes, sea). It is necessary to find long line profiles of rivers, levels of lakes and contours of their shorelines, as elements of the network. By means of specialized software, these network elements are incorporated into the existing digital relief maps of Latvia where the detected errors have been excluded. The model data will be used for regional evaluation of the groundwater flow distributions, especially, in areas bordering the neighboring countries and the Baltic Sea. HM of Latvia will provide data for establishment of local models that are used for determination of the permissible productivity of groundwater sources, for modeling contaminant migration and for evaluating effectiveness of measures used for restoration of groundwater resources. It is expected that, in future, HM of Latvia will be supported and developed in close cooperation between RTU and LEGMC. This publication was presented at the 3rd World Congress of Latvian Scientists, Riga, 25 October, 2011


Keywords
hydrogeological model, management of groundwater resources, environment recovery

Spalviņš, A., Nulle, U. Hydrogeological Model for Management and Recovery of Groundwater Resources of Latvia. Boundary Field Problems and Computer Simulation. Vol.50, 2011, pp.7-13. ISSN 1407-7493.

Publication language
Latvian (lv)
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