Assessment of nitrate pollution in the Grand Morin aquifers (France): combined use of geostatistics and physically based modeling.

The objective of this work is to combine several approaches to better understand nitrate fate in the Grand Morin aquifers (2700 km(2)), part of the Seine basin. cawaqs results from the coupling of the hydrogeological model newsam with the hydrodynamic and biogeochemical model of river ProSe. cawaqs is coupled with the agronomic model Stics in order to simulate nitrate migration in basins. First, kriging provides a satisfactory representation of aquifer nitrate contamination from local observations, to set initial conditions for the physically based model. Then associated confidence intervals, derived from data using geostatistics, are used to validate cawaqs results. Results and evaluation obtained from the combination of these approaches are given (period 1977-1988). Then cawaqs is used to simulate nitrate fate for a 20-year period (1977-1996). The mean nitrate concentrations increase in aquifers is 0.09 mgN L(-1)yr(-1), resulting from an average infiltration flux of 3500 kgN.km(-2)yr(-1).

Modeling nitrate fluxes at the catchment scale using the integrated tool CAWAQS.

Nitrates fluxes in the Grand Morin basin (1200 km(2)), that is subjected to intense agricultural pressure, are considered using in-stream observations (around 250 sampling days over 5 years) and physically based simulations using the CAWAQS model (CAtchment WAter Quality Simulator). In-stream nitrate concentration averaged 6 mg N L(-1), increasing by approximately 0.2 mg N L(-1) yr(-1) around this value (period 1991-1996). Our results show that, over the period of 1991-1996, the differences between in-stream observed nitrate concentrations and simulated nitrate concentrations result from nitrate losses at the basin scale. These losses are due to denitrification by transfer through wetlands, alluvial plains, the hyporheic zone, and by benthic processes in rivers. A mean annual mass balance at the basin scale indicates that 40% of the infiltration flux (3360 kg N km(-2) yr(-1)) is removed from the system via the river network, 40% is stored in aquifers and 20% is lost by denitrification (period 1991-1996).