Fresh Submarine Groundwater Discharge in Belgium: an overview
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Groundwater in coastal zones is complex because fresh- and salt water mix directly. Studying this area is challenging since it's different from land and marine environments. The thin layer of water which sometimes covers the beach makes exploration difficult. For mapping the salinity of the groundwater in large areas, some researchers use machines that measure from the air, but the final picture that is obtained can be rather coarse. A more refined image can be reached when methods are deployed on the Earth's surface. We have used 2 of these methods to study the groundwater in a large part of the Belgian coastal zone, searching for locations where fresher groundwater is flowing towards the North Sea. The final map shows significant variations in the location of this outflow, the reasons for this is still not fully understood.