Analyses of freshwater stress with a couple ground and surface water model in the Pra Basin, Ghana

Abstract. The increasing importance of catchment-scale and basin-scale models of the hydrological cycle makes it desirable to have a simple, yet physically realistic model for lateral subsurface water flow. As a first building block towards such a model, analytical solutions are presented for horizontal groundwater flow to surface waters held at prescribed water levels for aquifers with parallel and radial flow. The solutions are valid for a wide array of initial and boundary conditions and additions or withdrawals of water, and can handle discharge into as well as lateral infiltration from the surface water. Expressions for the average hydraulic head, the flux to or from the surface water, and the aquifer-scale hydraulic conductivity are developed to provide output at the scale of the modelled system rather than just point-scale values. The upscaled conductivity is time-variant. It does not depend on the magnitude of the flux but is determined by medium properties as well as the external forcings that drive the flow. For the systems studied, with lateral travel distances not exceeding 10 m, the circular aquifers respond very differently from the infinite-strip aquifers. The modelled fluxes are sensitive to the magnitude of the storage coefficient. For phreatic aquifers a value of 0.2 is argued to be representative, but considerable variations are likely. The effect of varying distributions over the day of recharge damps out rapidly; a soil water model that can provide accurate daily totals is preferable over a less accurate model hat correctly estimates the timing of recharge peaks.

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The surface water model for assessing Canada's nuclear fuel waste disposal concept

Waste Management ◽

10.1016/0956-053x(93)90007-j ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 153-170 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

G.A. Bird ◽

M. Stephenson ◽

R.J. Cornett

Keyword(s):

Surface Water ◽

Nuclear Fuel ◽

Waste Disposal ◽

Water Model ◽

Nuclear Fuel Waste

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Sensitivity Analysis of Hyporheic Exchange to Small Scale Changes In Gravel-Sand Flumebed Using A Coupled Groundwater-Surface Water Model

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-20319 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Md Abdullah Al Mehedi ◽

Nora Reichert ◽

Frank Molkenthin

Keyword(s):

Sensitivity Analysis ◽

Surface Water ◽

Reactive Transport ◽

Time Integration ◽

Longitudinal Direction ◽

Numerical Approach ◽

Hyporheic Exchange ◽

Water Model ◽

Small Scale ◽

Flume Experiments

Distribution of the hyporheic streamlines and residence time (HRT) is a crucial factor under streambed to understand the transport phenomena of environmental toxins, sediment metabolic rates in fluvial ecology as well as hydrological water budget. To quantify HRT, both the laboratory and numerical approach could serve as discerning tools. However, due to high heterogeneity in natural streambed sediment and topography, an efficient numerical model setup can prove to be pragmatic in comparison to tedious laboratory experiments for tracing streamlines. Moreover, repeatability of results, high amount of variation in the laboratory flumebed setup, greater insight into the 3D flow system and investigation possibilities with regard to individual streamlines or particular areas of HRT distribution cannot be well executed in laboratory. On the other hand, an automated generation of hyporheic streamlines with a range of various flumebed setups could propel a better understanding of the process and behavior of hyporheic streamlines and HRT distribution. Therefore, a robust numerical method could bestow to trace a large number of particles from various seeding locations at the flumebed. All of these facts enforce the necessity of numerical modeling of flume experiments to perceive the hyporheic exchange mechanisms at fieldwork and research, which are difficult to segregate under natural in-stream conditions. Keeping these issues in mind, we developed an automated numerical&#160; method for quantifying the hyporheic exchange, where the surface water modeling software, HEC-RAS 5.0.5 and the subsurface flow and reactive transport code, MIN3P are coupled. A channel segment with a longitudinal dimension of 1 m and water surface elevation of 0.02 m is used for generating the hydraulic head distribution over the flumebed. A groundwater model domain of the dimensions of x:y:z = 1m:0.1m:0.1m is considered for the investigation of hyporheic exchange. A simple code for computing streamlines based on 4th order Runge-Kutta technique with the adaptive time integration method is developed using Matlab. Sensitivity analysis of streamline distribution and HRT to small scale changes (e.g. changes in dimension, distribution, and shape of the flumebed material) was performed, assuming a sand-gravel material mix. Various geometric shapes of gravel pieces (e.g. triangle, rectangle, trapezoid, and sphere) were used to vary the elevation of flumebed on a 1 mm scale. The results of the automated process show that the size, shape and distribution of trapezoidal gravel and sand portion in the streambed have a significant impact over hyporheic streamlines and HRT. High number and length of streamlines thus high HRT are found in case of the higher length of ridges created by the elevated portion of gravel pieces. In case of the increase of the length of gravel pieces along the longitudinal direction of flumebed, the length of streamlines and HRT decrease whereas the number of streamlines increase. Small scale hyporheic exchanges are found in case of increasing length of gravel pieces. Similar outcomes are also found for triangular and spherical gravel pieces. Both the number and length of streamlines are significantly reduced in case of the high number of gravel and sand portion on the streambed.

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Including hydrologic signatures in the calibration of a groundwater-surface water model to improve representation of artificial drain

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-9283 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Simon Stisen ◽

Raphael Schneider ◽

Anker Lajer Højberg

Keyword(s):

Surface Water ◽

Groundwater Flow ◽

Large Scale ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Water Cycle ◽

Regional Scale ◽

Drainage System ◽

Water Model ◽

Hydrological Models ◽

Drain Flow

About half of the Danish agricultural land is artificially drained to make land arable and increase crop yield. Those artificial drains, mostly in the form on tile drains, have a significant effect on the groundwater flow patterns and the whole water cycle. Consequently, the drainage system must also be represented in hydrological models that are used to understand and simulate, for example, recharge patterns, groundwater flow paths, or the transport and retention of nutrients. However, representation of drain in regional- and large-scale hydrological models is challenging due to i) issues with scale, ii) a lack of data on the distribution of the drain network, and iii) a lack of direct observations of drain flow. This calls for more indirect methods to inform such models.We assume that drain flow leaves a signal in certain hydrograph signatures, as it impacts the generation of streamflow. Based on a dataset of observed discharge covering all of Denmark, and simulation results from regional-scale hydrological models, we use machine learning regressors to shed light on possible correlations between hydrograph signatures and artificial drainage. Building up on this step, we run a series of calibration exercises on a hydrological model of the agriculturally dominated Norsminde catchment, Denmark (~100&#160;km2). The model is set up in the DHI MIKE SHE software, as distributed coupled groundwater-surface water models with a grid size of 100&#160;m. The different calibration exercises differed in the objective functions used: either we only use conventional stream flow metrics (KGE), or also include hydrograph signatures that showed sensitive towards drain flow in our regression analysis. We then evaluate the results from the different calibration exercises, in terms of how well the model reproduces directly observed drain flow, and spatial drainage patterns.Despite including hydrologic signatures in the calibration process, the representation of drain flow in large-scale models remains challenging. Eventually, the insight gained from this and similar studies will be incorporated in the National Water Resources Model for Denmark, to help improving national targeted regulation of nitrate application through fertilizers.

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