Heterogeneous or homogeneous? Implications of simplifying heterogeneous streambeds in models of losing streams

Irvine, Dylan J.; Brunner, Philip; Franssen, Harrie‐Jan Hendricks; Simmons, Craig T.

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2011.11.051

Cited by 97 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…In particular the concept of GW-SW controlled by head in surface water and groundwater and a stream bed leakage coefficient (see section 2.1) become more challenging to apply as all the parameters involved are known to show large spatial (and temporal) heterogeneity (see, e.g. Fleckenstein et al 2006;Irvine et al 2012).…”

Section: Characteristics Of the Local Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

Groundwater and Surface Water Interaction at the Regional-scale – A Review with Focus on Regional Integrated Models

Barthel

Banzhaf

2015

Water Resour Manage

208

124

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Scientists and practitioners agree that integrated water resource management is necessary, with an increasing need for research at the regional scale (10 3 to 10 5 km 2 ). At this scale interactions between environmental and human systems are fully developed and global change is linked to local actions. The groundwater-surface water interaction (GW-SW) is of particular interest. Herein we review the scientific journal literature and examine GW-SW at the regional scale. We briefly review all existing literature on GW-SW, then summarise its characteristics at different scales and identify specific challenges of the regional scale. We explore whether GW-SW should be treated differently at regional and local scales. Regional GW-SW is rarely examined in experimental field studies, which almost exclusively cover small areas. However, GW-SW is often integral to large scale coupled models. Thus, we collate information about existing models and their regional applications. Fully coupled, physics-based models have great potential to meet the technical challenges. However, limited data availability hampers the application of complex models at the regional scale and loosely coupled schemes are more widely applied. Many integrated modelling concepts have been published, but none have been applied in a wide range of settings. Thus, it is impossible to compare the performance of different approaches. Comparative analyses of existing regional scale integrated models in the context of different data availability and geographic conditions are needed. Unfortunately, peer-reviewed journal literature no longer provides a representative picture of the subject as models are becoming Btoo big to be published^or too pragmatic.

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Section: Characteristics Of the Local Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

Groundwater and Surface Water Interaction at the Regional-scale – A Review with Focus on Regional Integrated Models

Barthel

Banzhaf

2015

Water Resour Manage

208

124

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“…Overall, the heterogeneities modify both the penetration depth and the residence time of streamaquifer exchanges (Cardenas et al, 2004;Salehin et al, 2004;Sawyer and Cardenas, 2009). The common hypothesis of an homogeneous bed therefore generates errors on the assessment of stream-aquifer exchanges (Cardenas et al, 2004;Frei et al, 2010;Kalbus et al, 2009;Irvine et al, 2012), which are difficult to estimate for real case studies due to the fact that small scale heterogeneities are difficult to assess.…”

Section: The Stream-aquifer Interface At the Local Scale -The Hyporhementioning

confidence: 99%

Continental hydrosystem modelling: the concept of nested stream–aquifer interfaces

Flipo

Mouhri

Labarthe

et al. 2014

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Coupled hydrological-hydrogeological models, emphasising the importance of the stream-aquifer interface, are more and more used in hydrological sciences for pluridisciplinary studies aiming at investigating environmental issues. Based on an extensive literature review, stream-aquifer interfaces are described at five different scales: local [10 cm- . This led us to develop the concept of nested stream-aquifer interfaces, which extends the well-known vision of nested groundwater pathways towards the surface, where the mixing of low frequency processes and high frequency processes coupled with the complexity of geomorphological features and heterogeneities creates hydrological spiralling. This conceptual framework allows the identification of a hierarchical order of the multi-scale control factors of stream-aquifer hydrological exchanges, from the larger scale to the finer scale. The hyporheic corridor, which couples the river to its 3-D hyporheic zone, is then identified as the key component for scaling hydrological processes occurring at the interface. The identification of the hyporheic corridor as the support of the hydrological processes scaling is an important step for the development of regional studies, which is one of the main concerns for water practitioners and resources managers.In a second part, the modelling of the stream-aquifer interface at various scales is investigated with the help of the conductance model. Although the usage of the temperature as a tracer of the flow is a robust method for the assessment of stream-aquifer exchanges at the local scale, there is a crucial need to develop innovative methodologies for assessing stream-aquifer exchanges at the regional scale. After formulating the conductance model at the regional and intermediate scales, we address this challenging issue with the development of an iterative modelling methodology, which ensures the consistency of stream-aquifer exchanges between the intermediate and regional scales.Finally, practical recommendations are provided for the study of the interface using the innovative methodology MIM (Measurements-Interpolation-Modelling), which is graphically developed, scaling in space the three pools of methods needed to fully understand stream-aquifer interfaces at various scales. In the MIM space, stream-aquifer interfaces that can be studied by a given approach are localised. The efficiency of the method is demonstrated with two examples. The first one proposes an upscaling framework, structured around river reaches of ∼ 10-100 m, from the local to the watershed scale. The second example highlights the usefulness of space borne data to improve the assessment of streamaquifer exchanges at the regional and continental scales. We conclude that further developments in modelling and field measurements have to be undertaken at the regional scale to enable a proper modelling of stream-aquifer exchanges from the local to the continental scale.

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“…Between these two states the hydraulic connection is transitional [34]. Irvine et al [35] compared the degree of connection and the water flux between an aquifer and a 20 m by 20 m section of a hypothetical losing river with a heterogeneous streambed, and between an aquifer and the same river with a homogeneous streambed and equivalent water fluxes. They found that the accuracy of the predicted fluxes with the homogeneous streambed model depended on the degree of connection between the river and aquifer at the calibrated state and on whether the water table was rising or falling.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Streambed Conductance on Stream Depletion

Lackey

Neupauer

Pitlick

2015

Water

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Stream depletion, which is the reduction in flow rate of a stream or river due to the extraction of groundwater in a hydraulically connected stream-aquifer system, is often estimated using numerical models. The accuracy of these models depends on the appropriate parameterization of aquifer and streambed hydraulic properties. Streambed conductance is a parameter that relates the head difference between the stream and aquifer to flow across the stream channel. It is a function of streambed hydraulic conductivity and streambed geometry. In natural systems, streambed conductance varies spatially throughout the streambed; however, stream depletion modeling studies often ignore this variability. In this work, we use numerical simulations to demonstrate that stream depletion estimates are sensitive to a range of streambed conductance values depending on aquifer properties. We compare the stream depletion estimates from various spatial patterns of streambed conductance to show that modeling streambed conductance as a homogeneous property can lead to errors in stream depletion estimates. We use the results to identify feasible locations for proposed pumping wells such that the stream depletion due to pumping from a well within this feasible region would not exceed a prescribed threshold value, and we show that incorrect assumptions of the magnitude and spatial variability of streambed conductance can affect the size and shape of the feasible region.

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Heterogeneous or homogeneous? Implications of simplifying heterogeneous streambeds in models of losing streams

Cited by 97 publications

References 19 publications

Groundwater and Surface Water Interaction at the Regional-scale – A Review with Focus on Regional Integrated Models

Groundwater and Surface Water Interaction at the Regional-scale – A Review with Focus on Regional Integrated Models

Continental hydrosystem modelling: the concept of nested stream–aquifer interfaces

Effects of Streambed Conductance on Stream Depletion

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