Movement of nitrates in shallow aquifer

摘要

The object of this work is to present a numerical model to simulate the movement of nitrates in groundwater from a cesspool in urban area. The formulation is based on the equation of mass conservation and the Darcy law in anisotropic heterogeneous media. The numerical technique combines a mixed element method to compute flow field with a method of characteristics to obtain the concentration profiles. Nitrate is treated as a conservative solute. The scenario of application is the Pampeano aquifer, typical of the Province of Buenos Aires (Argentina). The model can be used to predict long-term impact of material effluents on aquifer systems.