Pervasive, Preferential Flow through <scp>Mega‐Thick</scp> Unsaturated Zones in the Southern Great Basin

Jackson, Tracie R.; Fenelon, Joseph M.; Gainey, S. R.

doi:10.1111/gwat.13187

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…This approach is an efficient and performing alternative to the Richards formulation of water flow in an unsaturated porous media below the root zone (Besbes and De Marsily, 1984). It is particularly welladapted at the regional scale for analyzing groundwater level fluctuations (see for instance the recent studies of Cao et al, 2016;Jeong et al, 2018;Park et al, 2021) when preferential flow paths (Mirus and Nimmo, 2013;Nimmo, 2020a, b;Nimmo et al, 2021) are negligible, even though 10 % to 40 % of very deep aquifer recharge can originate from young water flowing through those preferential flow paths (Jackson et al, 2022).…”

Section: The Physically Based Coupled Surface-subsurface Model Cawaqs302mentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional coupled surface–subsurface hydrological model fitting based on a spatially distributed minimalist reduction of frequency domain discharge data

2023

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Abstract. Although integrated water resource models are indispensable tools for water management at various scales, it is of primary importance to ensure their proper fitting on hydrological variables, avoiding flaws related to equifinality. An innovative stepwise fitting methodology is therefore proposed, which can be applied for any river basin model, from catchment to continental scale as far as hydrological models or land surface models are concerned. The methodology focuses on hydrosystems considering both surface water and groundwater, as well as internal water fluxes such as river baseflow. It is based on the thorough analysis of hydrological signal transformation by various components of a coupled surface–subsurface hydrosystem in a nested approach that considers the conditionality of parameter fields on their input forcing fluxes. The methodology is based on the decomposition of hydrological signal in the frequency domain with the HYMIT (HYdrological MInimalist Transfer function) method (Schuite et al., 2019). Parameters derived from HYMIT are used to fit the coupled surface–subsurface hydrological model CaWaQS3.02 using a stepwise methodology, which relies on successive Markov chain Monte Carlo optimizations related to various objective functions representing the dependency of the hydrological parameter fields on forcing input fluxes. This new methodology enables significant progress to be made in terms of the spatial distribution of the model parameters and the water balance components at the regional scale. The use of many control stations such as discharge gauging stations with HYMIT leads to a coarse parameter distribution that is then refined by the fitting of CaWaQS parameters on its own mesh. The stepwise methodology is exemplified with the Seine River basin (∼76 000 km2). In particular, it made it possible to spatially identify fundamental hydrological values, such as rainfall partitioning into actual evapotranspiration, as well as runoff and aquifer recharge through its impluvium, in both the time and frequency domains. Such a fitted model facilitates the analysis of both the overall and detailed territorial functioning of the river basin, explicitly including the aquifer system. A reference piezometric map of the upmost free aquifer units and a water budget of the Seine basin are established, detailing all external and internal fluxes up to the exchanges between the eight simulated aquifer layers. The results showed that the overall contribution of the aquifer system to the river discharge of the river network in the Seine basin varies spatially within a wide range (5 %–96 %), with an overall contribution at the outlet of the basin of 67 %. The geological substratum greatly influences the contribution of groundwater to the river discharge.

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Section: The Physically Based Coupled Surface-subsurface Model Cawaqs302mentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional coupled surface–subsurface hydrological model fitting based on a spatially distributed minimalist reduction of frequency domain discharge data

2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: The Physically Based Coupled Surface-subsurface Model Cawaqs302mentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional coupled surface-subsurface hydrological model fitting based on a spatially distributed minimalist reduction of frequency-domain discharge data

Flipo

Gallois

Schuite

2022

Preprint

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Abstract. Although integrated water resources models are indispensable tools for water management at various scales, it is of primary importance to ensure their proper fitting on hydrological variables, avoiding flaws related to equifinality. An innovative step-wise fitting methodology is therefore proposed, which can be applied for any river basin model, from catchment to continental scale as far as hydrological models or land surface models are concerned. The methodology focuses on hydrosystems considering both surface water and groundwater, as well as internal water fluxes such as river baseflow. It is based on the thorough analysis of hydrological signal transformation by various components of a coupled surface--subsurface hydrosystem, in a nested approach, that considers the conditionality of parameter fields on their input forcing fluxes. The methodology is based on the decomposition of hydrological signal in the frequency domain with the HYMIT (HYdrological MInimalist Transfer function) method (Schuite et al., 2019). Parameters derived from HYMIT are used to fit the coupled surface–subsurface hydrological model CaWaQS3.03 using a step-wise methodology, which relies on successive Markov chain Monte Carlo optimizations, related to various objective functions representing the dependency of the hydrological parameters fields on forcing input fluxes. This new methodology enables significant progress to be made in terms of the spatial distribution of the model parameters and the water balance components, at the regional scale. The use of many control stations such as discharge gauging stations with HYMIT leads to a coarse parameter distribution that is then refined by the fitting of CaWaQS parameters on its own mesh. The step-wise methodology is exemplified with the Seine River basin (~76,000 km2). In particular, it made it possible to spatially identify fundamental hydrological values, such as rainfall partitioning into actual evapotranspiration, as well as runoff and aquifer recharge through its impluvium, in both the time and frequency domains. Such a fitted model facilitates the analysis of both the overall and detailed territorial functioning of the river basin, including explicitly the aquifer system. A reference piezometric map of the upmost free aquifer units and a water budget of the Seine basin are established, detailing all external and internal fluxes up to the exchanges between the eight simulated aquifer layers. The results showed that the overall contribution of the aquifer system to the river discharge of the river network in the Seine basin varies spatially within a wide range (5–96 %), with an overall contribution at the outlet of the basin of 67 %. The geological substratum greatly influences the contribution of groundwater to the river discharge.

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Relation of hydraulic conductivity to depth, alteration, and rock type in the volcanic rocks of Pahute Mesa, Nevada, USA

Jackson¹,

Fenelon

2022

Hydrogeol J

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Pervasive, Preferential Flow through Mega‐Thick Unsaturated Zones in the Southern Great Basin

Cited by 5 publications

References 57 publications

Regional coupled surface–subsurface hydrological model fitting based on a spatially distributed minimalist reduction of frequency domain discharge data

Regional coupled surface–subsurface hydrological model fitting based on a spatially distributed minimalist reduction of frequency domain discharge data

Regional coupled surface-subsurface hydrological model fitting based on a spatially distributed minimalist reduction of frequency-domain discharge data

Relation of hydraulic conductivity to depth, alteration, and rock type in the volcanic rocks of Pahute Mesa, Nevada, USA

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