Groundwater Modeling in Support of Water Resources Management and Planning under Complex Climate, Regulatory, and Economic Stresses

Abstract

Abstract:Groundwater is an important resource that meets part or all of the water demand in many developed basins. Since it is an integral part of the hydrologic cycle, management of groundwater resources must consider not only the management of surface flows but also the variability in climate. In addition, agricultural and urban activities both affect the availability of water resources and are affected by it. Arguably, the Central Valley of the State of California, USA, can be considered a basin where all stresses that can possibly affect the management of groundwater resources seem to have come together: a vibrant economy that depends on water, a relatively dry climate, a disparity between water demand and availability both in time and space, heavily managed stream flows that are susceptible to water quality issues and sea level rise, degradation of aquifer conditions due to over-pumping, and degradation of the environment with multiple species becoming endangered. Over the past fifteen years, the California Department of Water Resources has developed and maintained the Integrated Water Flow Model (IWFM) to aid in groundwater management and planning under complex, and often competing, requirements. This paper will describe features of IWFM as a generic modeling tool, and showcase several of its innovative applications within California.

Freshwater flow to the San Francisco Bay‐Delta estuary over nine decades (Part 2): Change attribution

“…In a prior study of the watershed (MWH, ), several “level of development” scenarios using the California Central Valley Groundwater‐Surface Water Simulation Model (Brush, Dogrul, & Kadir, ) were created to simulate a suite of hydrologic conditions that existed in the 20th and early 21st century. California Central Valley Groundwater‐Surface Water Simulation Model has been used previously in a variety of hypothetical outflow scenarios (Dale et al, ; Dogrul, Brush, & Kadir, ; Miller et al, ). Under a fixed level of development, water facilities, land use, water supply contracts, and regulatory requirements are held constant over the period of simulation.…”

“…In a prior study of the watershed (MWH, 2016), several "level of development" scenarios using the California Central Valley Groundwater-Surface Water Simulation Model were created to simulate a suite of hydrologic conditions that existed in the 20th and early 21st century. has been used previously in a variety of hypothetical outflow scenarios (Dale et al, 2013;Dogrul, Brush, & Kadir, 2016;Miller et al, 2009).…”

Regional Groundwater Quality Management through Hydrogeological Modeling in LCC, West Faisalabad, Pakistan

“…The continuous use of such poor quality water is causing secondary salinization and ultimately reduces crop productivity [6,51]. The groundwater quality results of Scenario I clearly indicated that an increase in the number of tube wells in the future could cause the problem of salinization; therefore, the groundwater regulation aimed at protecting the quality and quantity of groundwater resource must be implemented [61][62][63]. The predicted results of the spatial variation of groundwater salinity up to year 2030, under Scenario II, are shown in Figure 14.…”

Integrated hydrogeological modelling of hard-rock semi-arid terrain: supporting sustainable agricultural groundwater use in Hout catchment, Limpopo Province, South Africa

“…MIKE SHE; Abbott et al 1986aAbbott et al , 1986b-that simultaneously solve the governing equation of surface water (i.e., the Saint Venant equation, which describes unsteady flow on the land surface) and groundwater flow (i.e., the Richards equation, which describes unsteady flow through a variably saturated porous medium), (2) automatically coupled models, which simulate separate regions of the hydrologic and hydrogeological systems and integrate them through boundary condition links using an iterative matrix solution method (e.g., GSFLOW;Markstrom et al 2008), and (3) manually coupled models, which use separate surface and groundwater models set up independently and are calibrated to common observation data (e.g., SWAT-MODFLOW; Sophocleous and Perkins 2000;Kim et al 2008). Model selection depends on knowledge of the natural system, model functionality matching to the water resource problem being solved, available data, and computational requirements (Dogrul et al 2016).…”