Effect of tidal fluctuation on water table in a sloping leaky unconfined aquifer

The effect of tidal waves on groundwater flow is a crucial study from many aspects to handle the issues arising along coastal beaches. Hence, it is an important to assess the nature of groundwater fluctuation correctly using theoretical models. This work investigates the effect of bed slopes on the groundwater table fluctuations in a two-dimensional aquifer system near open tidal water with upward leakage. Unlike existing results, which focus only on confined or unconfined aquifer, the current study sheds light on height of water table in a leaky unconfined aquifer. Based on the assumption of physical model, the groundwater table with the effect of upward leakage for diurnal and semi-diurnal tides is analyzed. Linearization technique adopted in this work yields acceptable solution for varied situations, where tidal water interacts with an aquifer. The results obtained by analytical method for linearized equation are verified and compared with the numerical results for non-linear equation obtained by using highly stable alternate direction implicit (ADI) method. The error chart with inclusion of correlation coefficient, relative percentage difference (RPD) shows good echo of analytical results with numerical results. The combined effects of upward leakage and slopes are observed on the height of water table. The behavior of water table due to rise or decline in it’s height along an inland and coastal side are analyzed by considering tidal effects.