REGIONAL GROUNDWATER MODELING USING THE ANALYTIC ELEMENT METHOD

Assessment of long term groundwater availability can be greatly facilitated by groundwater flow models capable of representing realistically the groundwater flow patterns in very large regions. Analytic element groundwater flow models have been used successfully to create very large, yet detailed, groundwater flow models. A prime example of such a model is the Dutch National Groundwater Model (NAGROM), based on a multi-aquifer groundwater model. We will present a brief overview of the principles of the analytic element method, and then focus on an application that deals with the water supply of the city of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. This application illustrates how an existing groundwater flow model on a national scale, NAGROM, was refined by the Amsterdam Water Supply to ensure the continued use of groundwater, supplemented by infiltration, as a fresh water source for the city. This application required the demonstration that the artificial infiltration could not affect some very rare natural vegetation.