Spatio-temporal Variation of Groundwater Level and Electrical Conductivity in Coastal Areas of Jeju Island

In the coastal areas of Jeju Island, composed of volcanic rocks, saltwater intrusion occurs due to excessive pumping and geological characteristics. Groundwater level and electrical conductivity (EC) in multi-depth monitoring wells in coastal areas were characterized from 2005 to 2019. During the period of the lowest monthly precipitation, from November 2017 until February 2018, groundwater level decreased by 0.32-0.91 m. During the period of the highest monthly precipitation, from September 2019 until October 2019, groundwater level increased by 0.46-2.95 m. Groundwater level fluctuation between the dry and wet seasons ranged from 0.79 to 3.73 m (average 1.82 m) in the eastern area, from 0.47 to 6.57 m (average 2.55 m) in the western area, from 0.77 to 8.59 m (average 3.53 m) in the southern area, and from 1.06 to 12.36 m (average 5.92 m) in the northern area. In 2013, when the area experienced decreased annual precipitation, at some monitoring wells in the western area, the groundwater level decreased due to excessive groundwater pumping and saltwater intrusion. Based on EC values of 10,000 ㎲/cm or more, saltwater intrusion from the coastline was 10.2 km in the eastern area, 4.1 km in the western area, 5.8 km in the southern area, and 5.7 km in the northern area. Autocorrelation analysis of groundwater level revealed that the arithmetic mean of delay time was 0.43 months in the eastern area, 0.87 months in the northern area, 10.93 months in the southern area, and 17.02 months in the western area. Although a few monitoring wells were strongly influenced by nearby pumping wells, the cross-correlation function of the groundwater level was the highest with precipitation in most wells. The seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average model indicated that the groundwater level will decrease in most wells in the western area and decrease or increase in different wells in the eastern area.