Transport of Contaminants During Groundwater Surface water Interaction

Groundwater–surface water (GW–SW) interaction plays an important role in alluvial aquifer-related studies because of the possible exchange of solutes along with water. Thus, the contamination of surface water may affect the groundwater quality as well. The present study provides a review of contaminant transport in groundwater due to GW–SW interaction. Various factors affecting the transport of contaminants during this interaction like flow of groundwater from surface water, contaminant characteristics and transport mechanisms have been studied. These transport mechanisms are formulated into a set of mathematical equations known as governing equations of groundwater flow and solute transport. The different numerical methods adopted for solving those equations have also been reviewed. The methods discussed are finite difference method, finite element method and meshfree methods.