Nonlinear baseflow recession analysis in watersheds with intermittent streamflow

Abstract

Discharge in most rivers consists mainly of baseflow exfiltrating from shallow groundwater reservoirs, while surface or other direct flows cease soon after rain storms or snowmelt. Analysis of observed baseflow recessions of two rivers in Turkey with intermittent flows and different geographical and climatic characteristics yielded nonlinear storage–outflow relationships of the highly seasonal aquifers. Baseflow separation was carried out using a nonlinear reservoir algorithm. Baseflow seasonality is related to the hydro-climatic conditions influencing groundwater recharge and evapotranspiration of groundwater. As intermittent streams generally have zero flows in the dry season, calibration of recession parameters is in many cases a complicated task.

Citation Aksoy, H. & Wittenberg, H. (2011) Nonlinear baseflow recession analysis in watersheds with intermittent streamflow. Hydrol. Sci. J. 56(2), 226–237.     

Comparing various approaches for assessing groundwater recharge at a regional scale in the Canadian Shield

ABSTRACT

Estimating groundwater recharge is crucial to ensuring the proper management of aquifers. In this study, net regional recharge and spatial potential recharge are estimated at four watersheds within the Charlevoix–Haute-Côte-Nord (CHCN) regions, Quebec Province, Canada. Four methods are applied based on available data. The first two approaches are regional water budget methods. These two methods differ in their estimation of vertical inflow (VI), which is estimated from two hydrological models: GR4J and HYDROTEL. The third method estimates potential recharge spatially over the study area. Finally, the streamflow data are analysed using the Eckhardt baseflow separation method to obtain an estimation of recharge, assuming that discharge is equal to recharge. According to the results of all investigated methods, the mean annual recharge for the CHCN region is approximately 183 mm, which is 18% of the total annual precipitation (P). The discussion section highlights uncertainties due to the assumptions of each method and the reliability of the data.     

Evaluation of the Glugla method for estimating evapotranspiration and groundwater recharge

Abstract

Estimates of groundwater recharge are often needed for a variety of groundwater resource evaluation purposes. A method for estimating long-term groundwater recharge and actual evapotranspiration not known in the English literature is presented. The method uses long-term average annual precipitation, runoff, potential evaporation, and crop-yield information, and uses empirical parameter curves that depend on soil and crop types to determine long-term average annual groundwater recharge (GWR). The method is tested using historic lysimeter records from 10 lysimeters at Coshocton, Ohio, USA. Considering the coarse information required, the method provides good estimates of groundwater recharge and actual evapotranspiration, and is sensitive to a range of cropping and land-use conditions. Problems with practical application of the technique are mentioned, including the need for further testing using given parameter curves, and for incorporating parameters that describe current farming practices and other land uses. The method can be used for urban conditions, and can be incorporated into a GIS framework for rapid, large-area, spatially-distributed estimations of GWR. An example application of the method is given.     

Application of chloride profile and water balance methods in estimating groundwater recharge in Luanjing Irrigation Area,Inner Mongolia / Application des méthodes du profil de chlorure et du bilan hydrique pour l'estimation de la recharge hydrogéologique dans le Périmètre Irrigué de Luanjing,Mongolie Intérieure

Abstract

A study was carried out to investigate the use of the chloride profile method in conjunction with the water balance method to estimate the annual groundwater recharge in both natural and irrigation sites in Luanjing Irrigation Area, Inner Mongolia. Groundwater recharge from precipitation, estimated by the chloride profile method, is less than 0.1 mm year^?1 which accounts for just 0.06% of the long-term average annual rainfall, indicating that rainfall presently plays a minor role in the groundwater recharge. It appears that recharge events only occurred after heavy rain or sustained rainfall events. In the cropped area, the chloride profile method indicated that the average annual recharge is 268 mm year^?1 with an infiltration rate of 32.5%, which is reasonably consistent with the 33.1% obtained by the water balance method in 2007. The study shows that about one third of that water is discharged back to the groundwater.     

Alpine Hydrogeology: The Critical Role of Groundwater in Sourcing the Headwaters of the World

Groundwater discharge in alpine headwaters sustains baseflow in rivers originating in mountain ranges of the world, which is critically important for aquatic habitats, run-of-river hydropower generation, and downstream water supply. Groundwater storage in alpine watersheds was long considered negligible, but recent field-based studies have shown that aquifers are ubiquitous in the alpine zone with no soil and vegetation. Talus, moraine, and rock glacier aquifers are common in many alpine regions of the world, although bedrock aquifers occur in some geological settings. Alpine aquifers consisting of coarse sediments have a fast recession of discharge after the recharge season (e.g., snowmelt) or rainfall events, followed by a slow recession that sustains discharge over a long period. The two-phase recession is likely controlled by the internal structure of the aquifers. Spatial extent and distribution of individual aquifers determine the groundwater storage-discharge characteristics in first- and second-order watersheds in the alpine zone, which in turn govern baseflow characteristics in major rivers. Similar alpine landforms appear to have similar hydrogeological characteristics in many mountain ranges across the world, suggesting that a common conceptual framework can be used to understand alpine aquifers based on geological and geomorphological settings. Such a framework will be useful for parameterizing storage-discharge characteristics in large river hydrological models.     

Groundwater recharge assessment in a rural,arid, mid-mountain basin in North-Central Chile

ABSTRACT

A basic component of any hydrogeological study is the magnitude and temporal variation of groundwater recharge. This can be difficult to assess accurately, particularly in arid and semi-arid rainfed mid-mountain zones, as is the situation in the rural, low population density zones of North-Central Chile. In this study, recharge in the Punitaqui Basin, North-Central Chile, was characterized, contrasting the results of two methods: a modified Thornthwaite-Mather (MTM) and discharge recession analysis (DRA). We found a recharge rate of between 1 and 4% of average annual precipitation. Average recharge estimated by the MTM method is consistently higher than that estimated by DRA. Also, DRA tends to smooth the recharge values, resulting in a lower inter-annual variation coefficient. Both methods identified a threshold value of total annual precipitation, above which recharge can be expected to occur, of the order of 180 mm year^?1, consistent with values reported in similar areas.     

Evaluating Renewable Groundwater Stress with GRACE Data in Greece

Groundwater is a resilient water source and its importance is even greater in periods of drought. Areas such as the Mediterranean where adverse climate change effects are expected are bell‐weather locations for groundwater depletion and are of considerable interest. The present study evaluates renewable groundwater stress (RGS) as the ratio of groundwater use to groundwater availability, quantifying use as the trend in gravity recovery and climate experiment‐derived (GRACE) subsurface anomalies (ΔGW_trend) and renewable groundwater availability as mean annual recharge. Estimates for mean annual recharge for the various regions in Greece have been derived using numerical models. Our results highlight two RGS regimes in Greece (variable stress and unstressed) of the four characteristic stress regimes, that is, overstressed, variable stress, human‐dominated stress, and unstressed, defined as a function of the sign of use and the sign of groundwater availability (positive or negative). Variable stress areas are found in Central Greece (Thessaly region), where intensive agriculture results in negative ΔGW_trend values combined with positive mean annual recharge rates. RGS values range from ?0.05 to 0, indicating a low impact area. Within this region, adverse effects of groundwater overexploitation are already evident based on the negative GRACE anomalies; however, recharge is still positive, mitigating the effects of over‐pumping. The rest of Greek aquifers fall within the unstressed category, with RGS values from 0.02 to 0.05, indicating that the rate of use is less than the natural recharge rate.     

Automating Recession Curve Displacement Recharge Estimation

Recharge estimation is an important and challenging element of groundwater management and resource sustainability. Many recharge estimation methods have been developed with varying data requirements, applicable to different spatial and temporal scales. The variability and inherent uncertainty in recharge estimation motivates the recommended use of multiple methods to estimate and bound regional recharge estimates. Despite the inherent limitations of using daily gauged streamflow, recession curve displacement methods provide a convenient first‐order estimate as part of a multimethod hierarchical approach to estimate watershed‐scale annual recharge. The implementation of recession curve displacement recharge estimation in the United States Geologic Survey (USGS) RORA program relies on the subjective, operator‐specific selection of baseflow recession events to estimate a gauge‐specific recession index. This paper presents a parametric algorithm that objectively automates this tedious, subjective process, parameterizing and automating the implementation of recession curve displacement. Results using the algorithm reproduce regional estimates of groundwater recharge from the USGS Appalachian Valley and Piedmont Regional Aquifer‐System Analysis, with an average absolute error of less than 2%. The algorithm facilitates consistent, completely automated estimation of annual recharge that complements more rigorous data‐intensive techniques for recharge estimation.     

The effects of climate changes on aquifer storage and river baseflow

Abstract

The effects of changes in climate on aquifer storage and groundwater flow to rivers have been investigated using an idealized representation of the aquifer/river system. The generalized aquifer/river model can incorporate spatial variability in aquifer transmissivity and is applied with parameters characteristic of Chalk and Triassic sandstone aquifers in the United Kingdom, and is also applicable to other aquifers elsewhere. The model is run using historical time series of recharge, estimated from observed rainfall and potential evaporation data, and with climate inputs perturbed according to a number of climate change scenarios. Simulations of baseflow suggest large proportional reductions at low flows from Chalk under high evaporation change scenarios. Simulated baseflow from the slower responding Triassic sandstone aquifer shows more uniform and less severe reductions. The change in hydrological regime is less extreme for the low evaporation change scenario, but remains significant for the Chalk aquifer.     

Multi-method groundwater recharge estimation at Eshito micro-watershed,Rift Valley Basin in Ethiopia

ABSTRACT

Understanding recharge processes is fundamental to improve sustainable groundwater resource management. Shallow groundwater (SGW) is being developed for multiple purposes in Ethiopia without consideration of monitoring. We established a citizen science-based hydro-meteorological monitoring network, with a focus on SGW recharge estimation, in Eshito micro-watershed, Ethiopia. Citizen scientists collected rainfall, groundwater-level and stream water-level data. We characterized the shallow aquifer using pumping tests. The data were used to estimate SGW recharge using three methods: chloride mass balance, water-level fluctuation (WLF) and baseflow separation. Approximately 20% and 35% of annual rainfall amount contributes to recharge based on the chloride mass balance and WLF results, respectively. Baseflow separation showed recharge values for the watershed vary from 38% to 28% of annual rainfall at the upstream and downstream gauging stations, respectively. This study shows that the recharge in previously unmonitored micro-watersheds can be studied if citizens are involved in data generation.     

A combined methodology for estimating the potential natural aquifer recharge in an arid environment

ABSTRACT

An innovative methodology that combines an indirect physiography-based method for determining the runoff coefficient at a sub-basin scale and a water balance model applied on a daily time scale was developed to calculate the natural groundwater recharge in three watersheds within the Oum Zessar arid area, Tunisia. The effective infiltration was calculated as part of the water surplus by considering the average available water content (AWC) of soil and an average runoff coefficient for each sub-basin. The model indicates that the sub-basins covered mainly by the “artificial” soils of tabias and jessour, characterized by average AWC values greater than 150 mm, did not contribute to natural groundwater recharge over the 10-year period (2003–2012) considered. The estimated volume for the Triassic aquifer amounted to about 4.5 hm³ year^?1, which is consistent with previous studies. For the Jurassic and Cretaceous aquifers, the estimated volumes amounted to about 200 dm³ year^?1.     

A novel approach for estimating karst groundwater recharge in mountainous regions and its application in Switzerland

A pragmatic and simple approach for estimating the groundwater recharge of karst aquifers in mountainous regions by extrapolation of the hydrological regimes of gauged and well‐documented systems is presented. Specific discharge rates are derived using annual precipitation and spring measurements by taking into account catchment size and elevation, which are assumed to be the dominant factors. Reference sites with high data reliability are used for calibration and regional extrapolation. This is performed with normalized values employing spatial precipitation deviations and correlation with the elevation of the catchment areas. A tiered step procedure provides minimum and maximum normalized gradients for the relationship between recharge quantity and elevation for karst regions. The normalized recharge can therefore be obtained and extrapolated for any location using the spatial precipitation variability to provide an estimate of annual groundwater recharge. The approach was applied to Switzerland (approximately 7500 km² of karst terrain situated between 200 and over 4000 m a.s.l.) using annual precipitation data from meteorological stations for the years 2000 to 2011. Results show that the average recharge rates of different Swiss karst domains range from 20 to 46 L/km²s, which corresponds to an infiltration ratio between 0.6 and 0.9 of total precipitation. Despite uncertainties inherent in the approach, these results provide a benchmark for renewable karst groundwater resources in Switzerland of about 8.4 km³/year. The approach can be applied to any other mountainous karst region, that is, where a clear relationship between elevation, precipitation and recharge can be assumed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Estimating groundwater recharge using the chloride mass-balance method in the West Bank,Palestine

Abstract

The quantification of natural recharge rate is a prerequisite for efficient and sustainable groundwater resources management. Since groundwater is the only source of water supply in the West Bank, it is of utmost importance to estimate the rate of replenishment of the aquifers. The chloride mass-balance method was used to estimate recharge rates at different sites representing the three groundwater basins of the Mountain Aquifer in the West Bank. The recharge rate for the Eastern Basin was calculated as between 130.8 and 269.7 mm/year, with a total average replenishment volume of 290.3 × 10⁶ m³/year. For the Northeastern Basin, the calculated recharge rate ranged between 95.2 and 269.7 mm/year, with a total average recharge volume of 138.5 × 10⁶ m³/year. Finally, the recharge rate for the Western Basin was between 122.6 and 323.6 mm/year, with a total average recharge volume of 324.9 × 10⁶ m³/year. The data reveal a replenishment potential within the estimated replenishment volumes of previous studies for the same area. Also, the range was between 15 and 50% of total rainfall, which is still within the range of previous studies. The geological structure and the climate conditions of the western slope were clearly play an important role in the increment of total volume. In some cases, such as the geological formations in the Northeastern Basin, the interaction between Eocene and Senonian chalk formations result in minimum recharge rates.

Citation Marei, A., Khayat, S., Weise, S., Ghannam, S., Sbaih, M. & Geyer, S. (2010) Estimating groundwater recharge using the chloride mass-balance method in the West Bank, Palestine. Hydrol. Sci. J. 55(5), 780–791.     

Impacts on groundwater recharge areas of megacity pumping: analysis of potential contamination of Kolkata,India, water supply

Abstract

Water supply to the world’s megacities is a problem of quantity and quality that will be a priority in the coming decades. Heavy pumping of groundwater beneath these urban centres, particularly in regions with low natural topographic gradients, such as deltas and floodplains, can fundamentally alter the hydrological system. These changes affect recharge area locations, which may shift closer to the city centre than before development, thereby increasing the potential for contamination. Hydrogeological simulation analysis allows evaluation of the impact on past, present and future pumping for the region of Kolkata, India, on recharge area locations in an aquifer that supplies water to over 13 million people. Relocated recharge areas are compared with known surface contamination sources, with a focus on sustainable management of this urban groundwater resource. The study highlights the impacts of pumping on water sources for long-term development of stressed city aquifers and for future water supply in deltaic and floodplain regions of the world.

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis

Citation Sahu, P., Michael, H.A., Voss, C.I., and Sikdar, P.K., 2013. Impacts on groundwater recharge areas of megacity pumping: analysis of potential contamination of Kolkata, India, water supply. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 58 (6), 1340–1360.     

Quantification by numerical simulation of the impact of gullies on the water budget of a basement area,southeastern Brazil

ABSTRACT

Many regions of the world are affected by high density of large gullies that can impact on water resources. As these impacts have not been properly evaluated, this study presents a quantification model by numerical simulation of the effect of gullying on the water budget. An active gully of a very eroded region (Bação Complex) was selected and systematically monitored during a hydrological year. The simulation of the gully area by finite element method enabled the quantification of impacts, such as baseflow reduction and groundwater drawdown in the vicinity of this erosional feature. The baseflow reduction, when extrapolated to the whole complex, showed a significant baseflow loss during the dry seasons and an increase of stream flows during the rainy seasons, favouring floods. The numerical simulation results indicate that these modifications are relevant and must be considered when managing aquifers in intensely gullied areas with problems related to water availability.     

Comparative performance of soil water balance models in computing semi-arid aquifer recharge

Abstract

Estimating groundwater recharge is essential to ensure the sustainable use of groundwater resources, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. Soil water balances have been frequently advocated as valuable tools to estimate groundwater recharge. This article compares the performance of three soil water balance models (Hydrobal, Visual Balan v2.0 and Thornthwaite) in the Ventós-Castellar aquifer, Spain. The models were used to simulate wet and dry years. Recharge estimates were transformed into water table fluctuations by means of a lumped groundwater model. These, in turn, were calibrated against piezometric data. Overall, the Hydrobal model shows the best fit between observed and calculated levels (r² = 0.84), highlighting the role of soil moisture and vegetation in recharge processes.

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis; Associate editor X. Chen

Citation Touhami, I., et al., 2014. Comparative performance of soil water balance models in computing semi-arid aquifer recharge. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 59 (1), 193–203.     

The response of idealized aquifer/river systems to climate change

Abstract

A study of the effect of changes in climate on aquifer storage and river recharge using a simple model of an idealized aquifer/river system shows the combined influence of aquifer properties and climate change scenario on the system response. The study shows that changes in the seasonal distribution of recharge may have a critical effect on low flows in rivers supported by baseflow. However, rivers supported by slowly responding aquifers may show a considerable delay in response to climate change allowing an opportunity for water resources planning over an extended period.     

Definition of catchment area in karst: case of the rivers Krčić and Krka,Croatia

Abstract

The study area consists of the spring zones of the Kr?i?, Krka and Cetina river catchments located in the Dinaric karst, Croatia. Classical hydrological approaches and some newer time and frequency domain methods are used in order to validate the existing hypotheses both qualitatively and quantitatively, and these contribute to factual information about the hydrological behaviour of the catchments. The groundwater recharge rates are calculated by a mathematical model based on Palmer's soil-moisture balance method. The values of parameters of the groundwater recharge model are estimated by the spectral method. The calculated monthly and annual groundwater recharge rates form the basis for estimating the hydrological catchment areas of the spring zones and also for the determina-tion of quantitative relationships between the catchments.     

Introducing the recharge–discharge relationship to evaluate the recharge coefficient of karstic aquifers: thematic and indexing approaches

ABSTRACT

Karst aquifers and springs are important with respect to their potential for supplying drinking water in regions suffering from water scarcity in Iran. Accordingly, it is essential to determine the recharge potential of the catchment and the regions with higher obtainability potential. This study provides a road map for the Sheshpeer catchment in southern Iran. A recharge potential (RP) map was produced from which a recharge index (RI) was computed for several selected springs in the catchment. Furthermore, the unit discharge (q) – defined as the average annual discharge for a given catchment area and unit rainfall depth for each spring – was calculated. The plot of q versus RI for the springs showed a linear positive relationship between the two variables (R ² = 0.9). Applying the trend equation of this plot to the whole Sheshpeer karstic catchment reveals that its long-term recharge coefficient is 0.74.