A semianalytical method commonly used for quantifying stream depletion caused by ground water pumping was reviewed for applicability in narrow alluvial aquifers. This stream depletion factor (SDF) method is based on the analytic Glover model, but uses a numerical model-derived input parameter, called the SDF, to partly account for mathematically nonideal conditions such as variable transmissivity and nearby aquifer boundaries. Using the SDF can improve and simplify depletion estimates. However, the method's approximations introduce error that increases with proximity to the impermeable aquifer boundary. This article reviews the history of the method and its assumptions. New stream depletion response curves are presented as functions of well position within bounded aquifers. A simple modification to modeled SDF values is proposed that allows the impermeable boundary to be accounted for with image wells, but without overaccounting for boundary effects that are already reflected in modeled SDFs. It is shown that SDFs for locations closer to the river than to the aquifer boundary do not reflect impermeable-boundary effects, and thus need no modification, and boundary effects in the other portion of the aquifer follow a predictable removable pattern. This method is verified by comparing response curves using modified SDFs with response curves from an extensively calibrated numerical model of a managed ground water recharge site. The modification improves SDF-based stream depletion estimates in bounded aquifers while still benefiting from the additional information contained in SDF maps and retaining their value as standardized references for water rights administration.

Flow exchange between surface and groundwater is of great importance be it for beneficial allocation and use of water resources or for the proper exercise of water rights. In large-scale regional studies, most numerical models use coarse grid sizes, which make it difficult to provide an accurate depiction of the phenomenon. In particular, a somewhat arbitrary leakance coefficient in a third type (i.e., Cauchy, General Head) boundary condition is used to calculate the seepage discharge as a function of the difference of head in the river and in the aquifer, whose value is often found by calibration. A different approach is presented to analytically estimate that leakance coefficient. It is shown that a simple equivalence can be deduced from the analytical solution for the empirical coefficient, so that it provides the accuracy of the analytical solution while the model maintains a very coarse grid, treating the water-table aquifer as a single calculation layer. Relating the empirical leakance coefficient to the exact conductance, derived from physical principles, provides a physical basis for the leakance coefficient. Factors such as normalized wetted perimeter, degree of penetration of the river, presence of a clogging layer, and anisotropy can be included with little computational demand. In addition the river coefficient in models such as MODFLOW, for example, can be easily modified when grid size is changed without need for recalibration.

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