Abstract. Assessment of water resources available in different storages and moving along different pathways in a catchment is important for its optimal use and protection, and also for the prediction of floods and low flows. Moreover, understanding of the runoff generation processes is essential for assessing the impacts of climate and land use changes on the hydrological response of a catchment. Many methods for base flow separation exist, but hardly one focuses on the specific behaviour of temperate lowland areas. This paper presents the results of a base flow separation study carried out in a lowland area in the Netherlands. In this study, field observations of precipitation, groundwater and surface water levels and discharges, together with tracer analysis are used to understand the runoff generation processes in the catchment. Several tracer and non-tracer based base flow separation methods were applied to the discharge time series, and their results are compared.The results show that groundwater levels react fast to precipitation events in this lowland area with shallow groundwater tables. Moreover, a good correlation was found between groundwater levels and discharges suggesting that most of the measured discharge also during floods comes from groundwater storage. It was estimated using tracer hydrological approaches that approximately 90% of the total discharge is groundwater displaced by event water mainly infiltrating in the northern part of the catchment, and only the remaining 10% is surface runoff. The impact of remote recharge causing displacement of near channel groundwater during floods could also be motivated with hydraulic approximations. The results show further that when base flow separation is meant to identify groundwater contributions toCorrespondence to: A. L. Gonzales (arpadgon@hotmail.com) stream flow, process based methods (e.g. the rating curve method; Kliner and Knezek, 1974) are more reliable than other simple non-tracer based methods. Also, the recursive filtering method (proposed by Eckhardt, 2005) can be calibrated well using the results of tracer investigation giving good results. Consequently, non-tracer based base flow separation methods that can be validated for some events may provide a powerful tool for groundwater assessment or model calibration/validation in lowland areas.

Abstract. Assessment of water resources kept in different storages and moving along different pathways in a catchment is important for its optimal use and protection, and also for the prediction of floods and low flows. Moreover, understanding of the runoff generation processes is essential for assessing the impacts of climate and land use changes on the hydrological response of a catchment. Many methods for base flow separation exist, but hardly one focuses on the specific behaviour of temperate lowland areas. This paper presents the results of a base flow separation study carried out in a lowland area in the Netherlands. In this research, field observations of precipitation, groundwater and surface water levels and discharges, together with tracer analysis are used to understand the runoff generation processes in the catchment. Several tracer and non-tracer based base flow separation methods were applied to the discharge time series, and their results are compared. The results show that groundwater levels react fast to precipitation events in this lowland area with shallow groundwater tables. Moreover, a good correlation was found between groundwater levels and discharges meaning that most of the measured discharge also during floods comes from the groundwater storage. It was determined using tracer hydrological approaches that approximately 90% of the total discharge is groundwater displaced by event water infiltrating in the northern part of the catchment, and only the remaining 10% is surface runoff. The impact of remote recharge causing displacement of near channel groundwater during floods could also be motivated with hydraulic approximations. The results show further that when base flow separation is meant to separate groundwater contributions to stream flow, process based methods (e.g. rating curve method; Kliner and Knezek, 1974) are more reliable than other simple non-tracer based methods. Also, the recursive filtering method (proposed by Eckhardt, 2005) can be calibrated well using the results of tracer investigation, and this resulted in good results. Consequently, simple non-tracer based base flow separation methods that could be validated for some events may provide a powerful tool for groundwater assessment or model calibration/validation in lowland areas.

Abstract.The groundwater flow models currently used in the western part of The Netherlands and in other similar peaty areas are thought to be a too simplified representation of the hydrological reality.

Abstract. The groundwater flow models currently used in the western part of The Netherlands and in other similar peaty areas are thought to be a too simplified representation of the hydrological reality. One of the reasons is that due to the schematization of the subsoil, its heterogeneity cannot be represented adequately. Moreover, the applicability of Darcy's law in these types of soils has been questioned, but this law forms the basis of most groundwater flow models. With the purpose of assessing the typical heterogeneity of the subsoil and to verify the applicability of Darcy's law fieldwork was completed at a research site in the western part of The Netherlands. The assessments were carried for the so called Complex Confining Layer (CCL), which is the Holocene peaty to clayey layer overlying Pleistocene sandy deposits. Borehole drilling through the CCL with a hand auger was completed and revealed the typical heterogeneous character of this layer showing a dominance of muddy, humified peat which is alternated with fresher peat and clay. Slug tests were carried out to study the applicability of Darcy's law given that previous studies suggested the non validity for humified peat soils given by a variable hydraulic conductivity K with the hydraulic gradient. For higher humification degrees, the experiments indeed suggested a variable K, but this seems to be the result of the inappropriate use of steady-state formulae for transient experiments in peaty environments. The muddy peat sampled has a rather plastic nature, and the high compressibility of this material leads to transient behavior. However, using transient formulae, the slug tests conducted for different initial hydraulic heads showed that there was hardly any evidence of a variation of the hydraulic conductivity with the hydraulic gradient. Therefore, Darcy's law can be used for peat soils. The heterogeneity of the subsoil and the apparent applicability of Darcy's law were taking into account for the detailed heterogeneous model that was prepared for the research site. A MODFLOW model consisting of 13 layers in which 4 layers represent the heterogeneous CCL was set up for an average year assuming steady state conditions and for the winter of 2009 to 2010 adopting transient conditions. The transient model was then extended for a whole hydrological year and for an eight year period with the objective of visualizing the flowpaths through the CCL. The results from these models were compared with a 10 layer model whereby the CCL is represented by a single layer assuming homogeneity. From the comparison of the two model types the conclusion could be drawn that a single layer schematization of the CCL produces flowpath patterns which are not the same but still quite similar to a 4 layer representation of the CCL. However, the single layer schematization results in a considerable underestimation of the flow velocity, and subsequently a longer travel time, through the CCL. Therefore, a single layer model of the CCL seems quite appropriate to represent the flow behavior of the shallow groundwater system, but would be inappropriate for transport modeling through the CCL.