scholarly journals Using the nonlinear aquifer storage–discharge relationship to simulate the base flow of glacier- and snowmelt-dominated basins in northwest China

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (9) ◽  
pp. 3577-3586 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Gan ◽  
Y. Luo

Abstract. Base flow is an important component in hydrological modeling. This process is usually modeled by using the linear aquifer storage–discharge relation approach, although the outflow from groundwater aquifers is nonlinear. To identify the accuracy of base flow estimates in rivers dominated by snowmelt and/or glacier melt in arid and cold northwestern China, a nonlinear storage–discharge relationship for use in SWAT (Soil Water Assessment Tool) modeling was developed and applied to the Manas River basin in the Tian Shan Mountains. Linear reservoir models and a digital filter program were used for comparisons. Meanwhile, numerical analysis of recession curves from 78 river gauge stations revealed variation in the parameters of the nonlinear relationship. It was found that the nonlinear reservoir model can improve the streamflow simulation, especially for low-flow period. The higher Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency, logarithmic efficiency, and volumetric efficiency, and lower percent bias were obtained when compared to the one-linear reservoir approach. The parameter b of the aquifer storage–discharge function varied mostly between 0.0 and 0.1, which is much smaller than the suggested value of 0.5. The coefficient a of the function is related to catchment properties, primarily the basin and glacier areas.

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 5535-5561
Author(s):  
R. Gan ◽  
Y. Luo

Abstract. Baseflow is an important component in hydrological modeling. This process is usually modeled by using the linear aquifer storage–discharge relation approach, although the outflow from groundwater aquifers is nonlinear. To identify the accuracy of baseflow estimates in rivers dominated by snow and/or glacier melt in arid and cold northwestern China, a nonlinear storage–discharge relationship for use in SWAT (Soil Water Assessment Tools) modeling was developed and applied to the Manas River basin in the Tianshan Mountains. Linear reservoir models and a digital filter program were used for comparisons. Meanwhile, numerical analysis of flow recession curves from 78 river gauge stations revealed variation in the coefficients of the nonlinear relationship. It was found that the nonlinear reservoir model can improve the streamflow simulation, especially for low-flows. The highest Nash–Sutcliff efficiency and lowest Percent Bias were obtained when compared to the one- or two-linear reservoir approach. The exponent b of the aquifer storage–discharge function varied mostly between 0.0 and 0.1, which is much smaller than the suggested value of 0.5. The coefficient a of the function is related to catchment properties, primarily the basin and glacier areas.


2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 1259-1267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Luo ◽  
J. Arnold ◽  
P. Allen ◽  
X. Chen

Abstract. Baseflow is an important component in hydrological modeling. The complex streamflow recession process complicates the baseflow simulation. In order to simulate the snow and/or glacier melt dominated streamflow receding quickly during the high-flow period but very slowly during the low-flow period in rivers in arid and cold northwest China, the current one-reservoir baseflow approach in SWAT (Soil Water Assessment Tool) model was extended by adding a slow- reacting reservoir and applying it to the Manas River basin in the Tianshan Mountains. Meanwhile, a digital filter program was employed to separate baseflow from streamflow records for comparisons. Results indicated that the two-reservoir method yielded much better results than the one-reservoir one in reproducing streamflow processes, and the low-flow estimation was improved markedly. Nash-Sutcliff efficiency values at the calibration and validation stages are 0.68 and 0.62 for the one-reservoir case, and 0.76 and 0.69 for the two-reservoir case. The filter-based method estimated the baseflow index as 0.60, while the model-based as 0.45. The filter-based baseflow responded almost immediately to surface runoff occurrence at onset of rising limb, while the model-based responded with a delay. In consideration of watershed surface storage retention and soil freezing/thawing effects on infiltration and recharge during initial snowmelt season, a delay response is considered to be more reasonable. However, a more detailed description of freezing/thawing processes should be included in soil modules so as to determine recharge to aquifer during these processes, and thus an accurate onset point of rising limb of the simulated baseflow.


2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 10397-10424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Luo ◽  
J. Arnold ◽  
P. Allen ◽  
X. Chen

Abstract. Baseflow is an important component in hydrological modeling. Complex streamflow recession process complicates the baseflow simulation. In order to simulate the snow and/or glacier melt dominated streamflow receding quickly during high-flow period but very slowly during the low-flow period in rivers in arid and cold Northwest China, the current one-reservoir baseflow approach in SWAT (Soil Water Assessment Tool) model was extended by adding a slow reacting reservoir and applied to the Manas River basin in Tianshan Mountains. Meanwhile, a digital filter program was employed to separate baseflow from streamflow records for comparisons. Results indicated that the two-reservoir method yielded much better results than the one-reservoir one in reproducing streamflow processes, and the low-flow estimation was improved markedly. Nash-Sutcliff efficiency values at the calibration and validation stages are 0.68 and 0.62 for the one-reservoir case, and 0.76 and 0.69 for the two-reservoir case, respectively. The filter-based method estimated the baseflow index as 0.60, while the model-based as o.45. The filter-based baseflow responds almost immediately to surface runoff occurrence at onset of rising limb, while the model-based with a delay. In consideration of watershed surface storage retention and soil freezing/thawing effects on infiltration and recharge during initial snowmelt season, a delay response is considered to be more reasonable. However, a more detailed description of freezing/thawing processes should be included in soil modules so as to determine recharge to aquifer during these processes, and thus an accurate onset point of rising limb of the simulated baseflow.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 3133
Author(s):  
Lu Zhang ◽  
Zhuohang Xin ◽  
Huicheng Zhou

Recent developments of satellite precipitation products provide an unprecedented opportunity for better precipitation estimation, and thus broaden hydrological application. However, due to the errors and uncertainties of satellite products, a thorough validation is usually required before putting into the real hydrological application. As such, this study aims to provide a comprehensive evaluation on the performances of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) 3B42V7 and Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks-Climate Data Record (PERSIANN-CDR), as well as their adequacies in simulating hydrological processes in a semi-humid region in the northeastern China. It was found that TMPA 3B42V7 showed a superior performance at the daily and monthly time scales, and had a favorable capture of the rainfall-intensity distribution. Intra-annual comparisons indicated a better representation of TMPA 3B42V7 from January to September, whereas PERSIANN-CDR was more reliable from October to December. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) driven by gauge precipitation data performed excellently with NSE > 0.9, while the performances of TMPA 3B42V7- and PERSIANN-CDR-based models are satisfactory with NSE > 0.5. The performances varied under different flow levels and hydrological years. Water balance analysis indicated a better performance of TMPA 3B42V7 in simulating the hydrological processes, including evapotranspiration, groundwater recharge and total runoff. The runoff compositions (i.e., base flow, subsurface flow, and surface flow) driven by TMPA 3B42V7 were more accordant with the actual hydrological features. This study will not only help recognize the potential satellite precipitation products for local water resources management, but also be a reference for the poor-gauged regions with similar hydrologic and climatic conditions around the world, especially the northeastern China and western Russia.


2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Bokiraiya Okky Latuamury ◽  
Lydia Riekie Parera ◽  
Husein Marasabessy

Alang is a sub-watershed emptying into the Gajah Mungkur Reservoir in Wonogiri, Central Java Indonesia, with an area of 51.01 km2 and lithology composed of Baturetno Formation and Wonosari Formation. Baseflow is a major component of river flow during the dry season. Hence, the characterization of its recession becomes necessary, and it can be performed with innovation in baseflow hydrological modeling, that is, the recession curve. This study was designed to describe the distinctive features of baseflow recession using a linear reservoir model, which is depicted in individual and master recession curves. The baseflow recession in AlangSubwatershed was represented by a combination of varying initial recession discharge (Q0), α, and recession constants (Krb). The individual recession curves were typified by Q0=0.19-9.11, α= 0.089-0.243, and Krb=0.7843-0.9148. As for the master recession curve, it had Q0=9.99, α=0.085, and Krb=0.928. These results signify a sloping recession curve, meaning that the water storage and aquifer characteristics that store and transmit water in Alang Subwatershed are in good condition.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 221
Author(s):  
Jiabin Peng ◽  
Tie Liu ◽  
Yue Huang ◽  
Yunan Ling ◽  
Zhengyang Li ◽  
...  

Hydrological modeling has always been a challenge in the data-scarce watershed, especially in the areas with complex terrain conditions like the inland river basin in Central Asia. Taking Bosten Lake Basin in Northwest China as an example, the accuracy and the hydrological applicability of satellite-based precipitation datasets were evaluated. The gauge-adjusted version of six widely used datasets was adopted; namely, Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks–Climate Data Record (CDR), Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS), Global Precipitation Measurement Ground Validation National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Prediction Center (NOAA CPC) Morphing Technique (CMORPH), Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrievals for GPM (GPM), Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP), the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA). Seven evaluation indexes were used to compare the station data and satellite datasets, the soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model, and four indexes were used to evaluate the hydrological performance. The main results were as follows: (1) The GPM and CDR were the best datasets for the daily scale and monthly scale rainfall accuracy evaluations, respectively. (2) The performance of CDR and GPM was more stable than others at different locations in a watershed, and all datasets tended to perform better in the humid regions. (3) All datasets tended to perform better in the summer of a year, while the CDR and CHIRPS performed well in winter compare to other datasets. (4) The raw data of CDR and CMORPH performed better than others in monthly runoff simulations, especially CDR. (5) Integrating the hydrological performance of the uncorrected and corrected data, all datasets have the potential to provide valuable input data in hydrological modeling. This study is expected to provide a reference for the hydrological and meteorological application of satellite precipitation datasets in Central Asia or even the whole temperate zone.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 22-37
Author(s):  
M. Kamran ◽  
RL.H.L. Rajapakse

In large scale watersheds, the accuracy level of medium and low flow simulation could decrease due to uncertainty of the watershed parameters. In hydrological modeling, sub division of watershed would help to better implement decision-making related to water resources management, which relies heavily on hydrologic simulations. However, an important concern will be raised over problems associated with lumped hydrologic models with watershed subdivision broadly applied in so called semi-distributed hydrological models since scale issues would significantly affect model performance, and thus, lead to dramatic variations in simulation results. It is important to achieve the appropriate level of sub divisions (discretization). Further at times, the resulting flood level can be much higher than expected, due to storm events. This is unprecedented and the reason may be due to saturated moisture level in the soil layer. Therefore, the Antecedent Moisture Condition (AMC) is an important parameter to be investigated to check the accuracy and possibility of further improvement of the model. In this paper, Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS) was used for continuous simulation to investigate the effect of watershed subdivision on the model performance. Further, the antecedent moisture condition (AMC) events were used to study the impacts of AMC on the model performance. Badalgama watershed is selected as study area in Maha Oya Basin in Sri Lanka. Spatial extents of Maha Oya Basin and Badalgama watershed are 1553 km² and 1272 km², respectively. Four rainfall stations and one river gauging station were selected in Badalgama watershed. Nash–Sutcliffe (NASH) coefficient and Mean Ratio of Absolute Error (MRAE) were selected as objective functions for modeling. The main focus was on MRAE, as the objective function, but Nash coefficient was also estimated and checked for comparison. In particular, results show that generally the accuracy of the model decreased from six to sixteen sub divisions, which shows that variation in the total number of sub watersheds had very little effect on runoff hydrographs and improvements generally disappear when the number of subdivisions reaches a relatively small number, approximately between six and sixteen sub-watersheds. The accuracy of the model with AMC-III increased by 12.04% when compared to AMC-II hence showing more reliable results as compared with AMC-II condition. In this research, recession method was used for base flow estimation, which led to mass balance error exceeding 20%. Therefore it is recommended that for improving the accuracy, linear reservoir method for base flow estimation should be used in order to conserve the water balance and AMC-III should be used for fully saturated soil instead of AMC-II.


Author(s):  
Stefano Segadelli ◽  
Maria Filippini ◽  
Anna Monti ◽  
Fulvio Celico ◽  
Alessandro Gargini

AbstractEstimation of aquifer recharge is key to effective groundwater management and protection. In mountain hard-rock aquifers, the average annual discharge of a spring generally reflects the vertical aquifer recharge over the spring catchment. However, the determination of average annual spring discharge requires expensive and challenging field monitoring. A power-law correlation was previously reported in the literature that would allow quantification of the average annual spring discharge starting from only a few discharge measurements in the low-flow season, in a dry summer climate. The correlation is based upon the Maillet model and was previously derived by a 10-year monitoring program of discharge from springs and streams in hard-rock aquifers composed of siliciclastic and calcareous turbidites that did not have well defined hydrogeologic boundaries. In this research, the same correlation was applied to two ophiolitic (peridotitic) hard-rock aquifers in the Northern Apennines (Northern Italy) with well-defined hydrogeologic boundaries and base-outflow springs. The correlation provided a reliable estimate of the average annual spring discharge thus confirming its effectiveness regardless of bedrock lithology. In the two aquifers studied, the measurable annual outputs (i.e. sum of average annual spring discharges) could be assumed equal to the annual inputs (i.e. vertical recharge) based on the clear-cut aquifer boundaries and a quick groundwater circulation inferable from spring water parameters. Thus, in such setting, the aforementioned correlation also provided an estimate of the annual aquifer recharge allowing the assessment of coefficients of infiltration (i.e. ratio between aquifer recharge and total precipitation) ranging between 10 and 20%.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1313
Author(s):  
George Akoko ◽  
Tu Hoang Le ◽  
Takashi Gomi ◽  
Tasuku Kato

The soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) is a well-known hydrological modeling tool that has been applied in various hydrologic and environmental simulations. A total of 206 studies over a 15-year period (2005–2019) were identified from various peer-reviewed scientific journals listed on the SWAT website database, which is supported by the Centre for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD). These studies were categorized into five areas, namely applications considering: water resources and streamflow, erosion and sedimentation, land-use management and agricultural-related contexts, climate-change contexts, and model parameterization and dataset inputs. Water resources studies were applied to understand hydrological processes and responses in various river basins. Land-use and agriculture-related context studies mainly analyzed impacts and mitigation measures on the environment and provided insights into better environmental management. Erosion and sedimentation studies using the SWAT model were done to quantify sediment yield and evaluate soil conservation measures. Climate-change context studies mainly demonstrated streamflow sensitivity to weather changes. The model parameterization studies highlighted parameter selection in streamflow analysis, model improvements, and basin scale calibrations. Dataset inputs mainly compared simulations with rain-gauge and global rainfall data sources. The challenges and advantages of the SWAT model’s applications, which range from data availability and prediction uncertainties to the model’s capability in various applications, are highlighted. Discussions on considerations for future simulations such as data sharing, and potential for better future analysis are also highlighted. Increased efforts in local data availability and a multidimensional approach in future simulations are recommended.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document