| Title | A fully integrated groundwater-surface-water modelling platform for southern Ontario |
| Download | Download (whole publication) |
| |
| Licence | Please note the adoption of the Open Government Licence - Canada
supersedes any previous licences. |
| Author | Frey, S; Berg, S; Sudicky, E; Russell, H ; Lapen, D |
| Source | Regional-scale groundwater geoscience in southern Ontario: an Ontario Geological Survey, Geological Survey of Canada, and Conservation Ontario geoscientists open house; by Russell, H A J; Ford, D; Priebe, E H; Holysh, S; Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 8363,
2018 p. 16, https://doi.org/10.4095/306520  Open
Access |
| Year | 2018 |
| Publisher | Natural Resources Canada |
| Meeting | Regional-Scale Groundwater Geoscience in Southern Ontario: Open House; Guelph; CA; February 28 - March 1, 2018 |
| Document | open file |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | on-line; digital |
| Related | This publication is contained in Regional-scale groundwater
geoscience in southern Ontario: an Ontario Geological Survey, Geological Survey of Canada, and Conservation Ontario geoscientists open house |
| File format | pdf |
| Province | Ontario |
| NTS | 30; 31B; 31C; 31D; 31E; 31G; 40; 41A; 41G; 41H/03; 41H/04; 41H/05; 41H/06; 41H/12; 41H/13 |
| Area | Southern Ontario; Eastern Ontario; Great Lakes |
| Lat/Long WENS | -84.0000 -74.0000 46.0000 41.5000 |
| Subjects | hydrogeology; surficial geology/geomorphology; geochemistry; regional geology; environmental geology; Nature and Environment; groundwater; modelling; groundwater resources; groundwater regimes;
groundwater movement; aquifers; surface waters; sedimentary basins; flow regimes; transport mechanisms; pollutants; bedrock geology; sediments; soils; hydrologic environment; climate; HydroGeoSphere; Risk management; Land cover; Climate change;
Population; Agriculture; Waste water; Plants; Phanerozoic; Cenozoic; Quaternary; Paleozoic; Silurian |
| Program | Groundwater Geoscience Aquifer Assessment & support to mapping |
| Released | 2018 02 16 |
| Abstract | Encompassing a land area of approximately 80,000 km2, the sedimentary basin that lies within Southern Ontario, holds groundwater and surface water resources crucial to both the sustainability and the
future development of this nationally important economic and agricultural region. While future water resource availability within Southern Ontario is of obvious concern, both the groundwater and surface water flow systems act as transport pathways
for a suite of potential contaminants sourced from waste water treatment plants, industry, and agriculture to reach the Great Lakes. It is also widely recognized that the Great Lakes are under stress, and are now the focal point of numerous
provincial, national, and international initiatives to promote surface water quality. These types of water resources challenges are not unique to Ontario, and world-wide there is a growing need to utilize 'big data' and advanced technology to help
quantify and understand the risks faced by our global water resources. In this context, efforts underway in Southern Ontario are leading to the development of a globally 'best-in-class' water resources characterization, quantification, and risk
management modelling platform.
The Southern Ontario model is currently being constructed with the HydroGeoSphere (HGS) platform, a 3D fully integrated groundwater - surface-water (GW-SW) flow and transport simulator. When completed, the model will
incorporate several million computational nodes in a high-resolution 3D unstructured finite element mesh, and will facilitate dynamic representation of GW-SW interactions with daily temporal resolution. Development of a model of this scale and
complexity is facilitated by ongoing advances in numerical methods, and by the increasing availability of detailed geological, hydrological and land surface datasets that are required when simulating such an expansive model domain. In particular, the
recent development of a 60 layer bedrock lithostratigraphic model for Southern Ontario, and the contiguous quaternary hydrostratigraphic data, have made the task of characterizing the subsurface component of the model manageable. When combined with
existing highly detailed soils, land cover, and hydrology data, as well as data from the Province's network of surface water and groundwater hydrometric monitoring stations, the hydrostratigraphic data will support an unprecedented level of detail
within such a large, regional-scale integrated model. We will present the physical framework of the 3D Southern Ontario HGS model, the principle data sets that are being employed, and the development progress to-date.
It is anticipated that this
proof-of-concept modelling platform will serve a strategic array of objectives, including the provision of regional boundary conditions for local scale models, and assessments of: Climate change impacts on surface water and groundwater resources;
Surface water and groundwater stresses induced by population growth; Impact of large-scale water extraction on regional flow systems; Cumulative impact of agricultural nutrient and WWTP effluent on Great Lake water quality. |
| Summary | (Plain Language Summary, not published)
Proceedings for a workshop in Guelph Ontario as part of the program S&T exchange. Abstracts have been contributed by Ontario Geological Survey, Ministry
of Environment and Climate Change, Conservation Authorities, Universities, private sector, and Unites States Geological Survey. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 306520 |
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