Distributed memory parallel computing of three-dimensional variable-density groundwater flow and salt transport

Advances in Water Resources, vol. 154, pp. 103976

Abstract

Fresh groundwater reserves, being of vital importance for more than a billion of people living in the coastal zone, are being threatened by saltwater intrusion due to anthropogenic activities and climate change. High resolution three-dimensional (3D), variable-density (VD), groundwater flow and salt transport (FT) numerical models are increasingly being used to support water managers and decision makers in their strategic planning and measures for dealing with the problem of fresh water shortages. However, these computer models typically require long runtimes and large memory usage, making them impractical to use without parallelization. Here, we parallelize SEAWAT, and show that with our parallelization 3D-VD-FT modeling is now feasible for a wide range of hydrogeologists, since a) speedups of more than two orders of magnitude can be obtained as illustrated in this paper, and b) large 3D-VD-FT models are feasible with memory requirements far exceeding single machine memory.

Authors 6

1. Jarno Verkaik corresponding

   Utrecht University · Deltares

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

   Unit Subsurface and Groundwater Systems, Deltares, Utrecht, The Netherlands

2. Joeri van Engelen

   Utrecht University · Deltares

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

   Unit Subsurface and Groundwater Systems, Deltares, Utrecht, The Netherlands

3. Sebastian Huizer

   Utrecht University · Arcadis (Netherlands)

   Affiliation as printed

   Department Land & Watermanagement, Arcadis, Arnhem, The Netherlands

   Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

4. Marc F. P. Bierkens

   Utrecht University · Deltares

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

   Unit Subsurface and Groundwater Systems, Deltares, Utrecht, The Netherlands

5. Hai Xiang Lin Aachen Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML)

   Leiden University · Delft University of Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Delft Institute of Applied Mathematics, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

   Institute of Environmental Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

6. Gualbert Oude Essink

   Utrecht University · Deltares

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

   Unit Subsurface and Groundwater Systems, Deltares, Utrecht, The Netherlands