The impact of floods on infiltration rates in a disconnected stream

Abstract

[1] A few studies suggest that infiltration rates within streambeds increase during the flood season due to an increase in the stream stage and the remove of the clogged streambed. However, some studies suggest that a new clogging layer will quickly form after an older one has been eroded, and that an increase in water depth will compress the clogging layer, making it less permeable during a flood event. The purpose of this work was to understand the impact of floods on infiltration rates within a disconnected stream. We utilized pressure data and daily streambed infiltration rates determined from diurnal temperature time series within a streambed over a period of 167 days for five flood events. Our data did not support the theory that floods linearly increase the infiltration rate. Since the streambed was clogged very quickly with a large load of suspended particles and compaction of the clogged layer, infiltration rates were also low during the flooding season. However, due to an increase in the wet perimeter within the stream during flooding periods, the total recharge amount to the aquifer was increased.

Influence of Hydrological Perturbations and Riverbed Sediment Characteristics on Hyporheic Zone Respiration of CO2 and N2

“…We identify several sediment classifications having distinct porosity and hydraulic conductivity distributions associated with a simple conceptual model of semiarid riverbeds with gravelly, poorly sorted, highly heterogeneous sediments. We assume that more energetic river flow conditions will generally lead to larger Φ, more uniform grain size distributions, coarse packing, and larger K c (i.e., Mutiti and Levy, ), whereas hydrograph falling limbs and less energetic river flow conditions will lead to smaller Φ, poorly sorted grain size distributions, fine packing, and smaller riverbed K c (Figure ) (W. Chen et al, ; Kamann et al, ; Leonardson, ; Marcarelli et al, ). The complexity associated with sediment texture, sorting, porosity, conductivity, and flow conditions have been extensively reported (Aalto et al, ; Beard & Weyl, ; Boadu, ; X. Chen et al, ; Inman & Jenkins, ; Rosenberry et al, ; Shepherd, ; Slatt, ; Sneider, ).…”

Factors affecting channel infiltration of floodwaters in Nahal Zin basin, Negev desert, Israel

“…The arrival times of both floods at sensor 7 showed that there was no lateral movement of water through the alluvium. The presence of a clogging layer mentioned in several studies (Stephens and Knowlton, 1986;Schmitz, 2004;Dahan et al, 2008;Chen et al, 2013) is put into a broader context here as an infiltration-inhibiting matrixsupported fine material layers. The finer material layers slow the water movement, whereas the coarse clastsupported layers enable the fast movement of water.…”

“…The occurrence of water abstraction because of infiltration during a flow event is well known (Murphey et al , ; Schick, ; Walters, ; Renard et al , ; Knighton and Nanson, ; Osterkamp et al , ; Schwartz, ; Bailey, ; Lange, ; Dahan et al , ; Stonestrom et al , ; Chen et al , ; Villeneuve et al , ). In arid regions, the losses from infiltration to a channel bed can sometimes be so large that floods may completely disappear on their way downstream (Vanney, ; Schick, ; Enzel, ; Knighton and Nanson, ; Schwartz, ; Blasch et al , ; Stewart‐Deaker et al , ; Stonestrom et al , ).…”

Solute dynamics across the stream‐to‐riparian continuum under different flood waves

“…Cardenas () and Shanafield et al () indicated that the flux is linearly proportional to river water level, especially under high hydrological connections. However, Chen et al () argued that the flux displays a strong nonlinear relationship with river water level. The simulation of Crosbie et al () revealed a two‐square function relationship between flux and river water level.…”