scholarly journals Tandem use of transit time distribution and fraction of young water reveals the dynamic flow paths supporting streamflow at a mountain headwater catchment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ravindra Dwivedi ◽  
Christopher Eastoe ◽  
John F. Knowles ◽  
Jennifer McIntosh ◽  
Thomas Meixner ◽  
...  

Abstract. Current understanding of the dynamic flow paths and subsurface water storages that support streamflow in mountain catchments is inhibited by the lack of long-term hydrologic data and the frequent use of single age tracers that are not applicable to older groundwater reservoirs. To address this, the current study used both multiple metrics and tracers to characterize the transient nature of flow paths with respect to change in catchment storage at Marshall Gulch, a sub-humid headwater catchment in the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona, USA. The fraction of streamflow that was untraceable using stable water isotope tracers was also estimated. A Gamma-type transit time distribution (TTD) was appropriate for deep groundwater analysis, but there were errors in the TTD shape parameters arising from the short record length of 3H in deep groundwater and stream water, and inconsistent seasonal cyclicity of the precipitation 3H time series data. Overall, the mean transit time calculated from 3H data was more than two decades greater than the mean transit time based on δ18O at the same site. The fraction of young water (Fyw) in shallow groundwater was estimated from δ18O time series data using weighted wavelet transform (WWT), iteratively re-weighted least squares (IRLS), and TTD-based methods. Estimates of Fyw depended on sampling frequency, the method of estimation, bedrock geology, hydroclimate, and factors affecting streamflow generation processes. The coupled use of Fyw and discharge sensitivity indicated highly dynamic flow paths that reorganized with changes in shallow catchment storage. The utility of 3H to determining Fyw in deeper groundwater was limited by data quality. Given that Fyw, discharge sensitivity, and mean transit time all yield unique information, this work demonstrates how co-application of multiple methods can yield a more complete understanding of the transient flow paths and observable storage volumes that contribute to streamflow in mountain headwater catchments.

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 4731-4760 ◽  
Author(s):  
U. Morgenstern ◽  
M. K. Stewart ◽  
R. Stenger

Abstract. Tritium measurements of streamwater draining the Toenepi catchment, a small dairy farming area in Waikato, New Zealand, have shown that the mean transit time of the water varies with the flow of the stream. Mean transit times through the catchment are 2–5 years during high baseflow conditions (in winter), becoming older as streamflow decreases (in summer), and then quite dramatically older during drought conditions, with ages of more than 100 years. Older water seems to be gained in the lower reaches of the stream, compared to younger water in the headwater catchment. The groundwater store supplying baseflow was estimated from the mean transit time and average baseflow to be 15.4×106 m3 of water, about 1 m water equivalent over the catchment and 2.3 times total annual streamflow. Nitrate from recent intensified land use is relatively high at normal streamflow, but is low at times of low flow with old water. This reflects both lower nitrate loading in the catchment several decades ago, and active denitrification processes in older groundwater. Silica, leached from the aquifer material and accumulating in the water in proportion to contact time, is high at times of low streamflow. There was a good correlation between silica and streamwater age, which potentially allows silica concentrations to be used as a proxy for age when calibrated by tritium measurements. This study shows that tritium dating of stream water is possible with single tritium measurements now that bomb-test tritium has effectively disappeared from hydrological systems in New Zealand, without the need for time-series data.


2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 2289-2301 ◽  
Author(s):  
U. Morgenstern ◽  
M. K. Stewart ◽  
R. Stenger

Abstract. Tritium measurements of streamwater draining the Toenepi catchment, a small dairy farming area in Waikato, New Zealand, have shown that the mean transit time of the water varies with the flow rate of the stream. Mean transit times through the catchment are 2–5 years during high baseflow conditions in winter, increasing to 30–40 years as baseflow decreases in summer, and then dramatically older water during drought conditions with mean transit time of more than 100 years. Older water is gained in the lower reaches of the stream, compared to younger water in the headwater catchment. The groundwater store supplying baseflow was estimated from the mean transit time and average baseflow to be 15.4 × 106 m3 of water, about 1 m water equivalent over the catchment and 2.3 times total annual streamflow. Nitrate is relatively high at higher flow rates in winter, but is low at times of low flow with old water. This reflects both lower nitrate loading in the catchment several decades ago as compared to current intensive dairy farming, and denitrification processes occurring in the older groundwater. Silica, leached from the aquifer material and accumulating in the water in proportion to contact time, is high at times of low streamflow with old water. There was a good correlation between silica concentration and streamwater age, which potentially allows silica concentrations to be used as a proxy for age when calibrated by tritium measurements. This study shows that tritium dating of stream water is possible with single tritium measurements now that bomb-test tritium has effectively disappeared from hydrological systems in New Zealand, without the need for time-series data.


2020 ◽  
Vol 587 ◽  
pp. 124942
Author(s):  
Youn-Young Jung ◽  
Dong-Chan Koh ◽  
Jeonghoon Lee ◽  
Maki Tsujimura ◽  
Seong-Taek Yun ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milan Onderka ◽  
Vladimír Chudoba

Abstract The ways how water from rain or melting snow flows over and beneath the Earth‘s surface affects the timing and intensity at which the same water leaves a catchment. Several mathematical techniques have been proposed to quantify the transit times of water by e.g. convolving the input-output tracer signals, or constructing frequency response functions. The primary assumption of these techniques is that the transit time is regarded time-invariant, i.e. it does not vary with temporarily changing e.g. soil saturation, evaporation, storage volume, climate or land use. This raises questions about how the variability of water transit time can be detected, visualized and analyzed. In this paper we present a case study to show that the transit time is a temporarily dynamic variable. Using a real-world example from the Lower Hafren catchment, Wales, UK, and applying the Continuous Wavelet Transform we show that the transit time distributions are time-variant and change with streamflow. We define the Instantaneous Transit Time Distributions as a basis for the Master Transit Time Distribution. We show that during periods of elevated runoff the transit times are exponentially distributed. A bell-shaped distribution of travel times was observed during times of lower runoff. This finding is consistent with previous investigations based on mechanistic and conceptual modeling in the study area according to which the diversity of water flow-paths during wet periods is attributable to contributing areas that shrink and expand depending on the duration of rainfall. The presented approach makes no assumptions about the shape of the transit time distribution. The mean travel time estimated from the Master Transit Time Distribution was ~54.3 weeks.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julien Farlin ◽  
Piotr Małoszewski

Abstract. The use of the annual cycles of stable isotopes to estimate the parameters of transit time distribution functions has been recently criticised by Kirchner (2016). The author shows that the mean residence time of heterogeneous catchments calculated from the damping of the amplitude of the input signal are very often over-estimates, sometimes by large factors. We show here that the overestimation depends on the relative time scales of the cycle’s frequency and the mean transit time and that tracer cycles can still be used, at least for groundwater systems sustained by baseflow. Firstly it appears that an exponential model is a good approximation for the transit time distribution of a heterogeneous groundwatershed if the subgroundwatersheds’ transit time distributions are themselves exponential and their mean transit times are in the same range or slightly higher than the period of the tracer cycle. Secondly, we suggest that tracer cycles can still be used as secondary data to test whether the degree of heterogeneity of the subsurface is small enough to warrant approximating it by a homogeneous medium. Lastly, we develop a model predicting the amplitude of groundwater temperature from the annual air temperature cycle, and show that even though temperature is not a conservative tracer, it can be useful for groundwater dating. The potential use of the temperature cycle is illustrated in the case-study of a sandstone aquifer drained by contact springs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ari Wibisono ◽  
Petrus Mursanto ◽  
Jihan Adibah ◽  
Wendy D. W. T. Bayu ◽  
May Iffah Rizki ◽  
...  

Abstract Real-time information mining of a big dataset consisting of time series data is a very challenging task. For this purpose, we propose using the mean distance and the standard deviation to enhance the accuracy of the existing fast incremental model tree with the drift detection (FIMT-DD) algorithm. The standard FIMT-DD algorithm uses the Hoeffding bound as its splitting criterion. We propose the further use of the mean distance and standard deviation, which are used to split a tree more accurately than the standard method. We verify our proposed method using the large Traffic Demand Dataset, which consists of 4,000,000 instances; Tennet’s big wind power plant dataset, which consists of 435,268 instances; and a road weather dataset, which consists of 30,000,000 instances. The results show that our proposed FIMT-DD algorithm improves the accuracy compared to the standard method and Chernoff bound approach. The measured errors demonstrate that our approach results in a lower Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) in every stage of learning by approximately 2.49% compared with the Chernoff Bound method and 19.65% compared with the standard method.


Author(s):  
Massimo Lombardi ◽  
Richard A. Jones ◽  
J�rgen Westby ◽  
Geir Torheim ◽  
Timothy E. Southon ◽  
...  

1985 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 673-683 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. M. Effros

The potential usefulness and limitations of the double-indicator mean transit time approach for measuring lung water are evaluated from both theoretical and empirical points of view. It is concluded that poor tissue perfusion is the most serious factor that can compromise the reliability of this approach. Replacement of the conventional water isotopes with a thermal signal enhances indicator delivery to ischemic areas but the diffusion of heat is not sufficiently rapid to permit measurements of water in macroscopic collections of fluid which remain unperfused. The frequency of pulmonary vascular obstruction in patients with pulmonary edema related to lung injury suggests that interpretation of transit time data will be complicated by uncertainties concerning perfusion. Thermal-dye measurements of lung water may prove more helpful in situations where pulmonary blood flow remains relatively uniform.


2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 1825-1831 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Farlin ◽  
P. Maloszewski

Abstract. Baseflow recession analysis and groundwater dating have up to now developed as two distinct branches of hydrogeology and have been used to solve entirely different problems. We show that by combining two classical models, namely the Boussinesq equation describing spring baseflow recession, and the exponential piston-flow model used in groundwater dating studies, the parameters describing the transit time distribution of an aquifer can be in some cases estimated to a far more accurate degree than with the latter alone. Under the assumption that the aquifer basis is sub-horizontal, the mean transit time of water in the saturated zone can be estimated from spring baseflow recession. This provides an independent estimate of groundwater transit time that can refine those obtained from tritium measurements. The approach is illustrated in a case study predicting atrazine concentration trend in a series of springs draining the fractured-rock aquifer known as the Luxembourg Sandstone. A transport model calibrated on tritium measurements alone predicted different times to trend reversal following the nationwide ban on atrazine in 2005 with different rates of decrease. For some of the springs, the actual time of trend reversal and the rate of change agreed extremely well with the model calibrated using both tritium measurements and the recession of spring discharge during the dry season. The agreement between predicted and observed values was however poorer for the springs displaying the most gentle recessions, possibly indicating a stronger influence of continuous groundwater recharge during the summer months.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document