Title: Coupling FEFLOW and MIKE11 to optimise the flooding system of the Lower Havel polders in Germany

Authors: Bertram L. Monninkhoff, Zhijia Li

Addresses: College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, 1 Xikang Road, Nanjing 210098, PR China. ' College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, 1 Xikang Road, Nanjing 210098, PR China

Abstract: Based on the software MIKE 11 and FEFLOW, a coupling surface water-groundwater interface has been developed to investigate the interaction for river branches, polders and wetlands. Its functionality covers the exchange of boundary conditions during runtime and the synchronisation of the temporal discretisation. The system has been applied to simple benchmark cases and complex field conditions. One project focused on the optimisation of a polder flooding system which prevents flooding in the downstream regions of the river Elbe. Due to the coupling, the influence of groundwater storage could be estimated and an optimised flooding strategy could be developed.

Keywords: coupling; groundwater storage; surface water; FEFLOW; MIKE11; Elbe; Havel; surface water-groundwater interface; river branches; polders; wetlands; Germany; polder flooding; flooding strategy; optimisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJW.2009.028724

International Journal of Water, 2009 Vol.5 No.2, pp.163 - 180

Published online: 25 Sep 2009 *

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