Modeling The Evolution Of A Regional Aquifer System With The California Central Valley Groundwater-Surface Water Simulation Model (C2VSIM)

The finite element application IWFM has been used to develop an integrated groundwater-surface water model for California's Central Valley, an area of ~50,000 km2, to simulate the evolution of the groundwater flow system and historical groundwater-surface water interactions on a monthly time step from October 1921 to September 2003. The Central Valley's hydrologic system changed significantly during this period. Prior to 1920, most surface water flowed unimpeded from source areas in the mountains surrounding the Central Valley through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the Pacific Ocean, and groundwater largely flowed from recharge areas on the valley rim to discharge as evapotransipration in extensive marshes along the valley's axis. Rapid agricultural development led to increases in groundwater pumping from ~0.5 km3/yr in the early 1920's to 13-18 km3/yr in the 1940's to 1970's, resulting in strong vertical head gradients, significant head declines throughout the valley, and subsidence of >0.3 m over an area of 13,000 km2. Construction of numerous dams and development of an extensive surface water delivery network after 1950 altered the surface water flow regime and reduced groundwater pumping to the current ~10 km3/yr, increasing net recharge and leading to local head gradient reversals and water level recoveries. A model calibrated to the range of historical flow regimes in the Central Valley will provide robust estimations of stream-groundwater interactions for a range of projected future scenarios. C2VSIM uses the IWFM application to simulate a 3-D finite element groundwater flow process dynamically coupled with 1-D land surface, stream flow, lake and unsaturated zone processes. The groundwater flow system is represented with three layers each having 1393 elements. Land surface processes are simulated using 21 subregions corresponding to California DWR water-supply planning areas. The surface-water network is simulated using 431 stream nodes representing 72 stream reaches, with 108 deliveries specified at 80 diversion locations. Monthly land use, agricultural crops, urban demand, precipitation, evapotranspiration, boundary stream flows and surface water diversions are specified, and the land-surface process calculates crop water demands and routes runoff to streams and deep percolation to the unsaturated zone. The stream process routes surface water flows, allocates available water to meet specified deliveries, and calculates stream-groundwater interactions. Groundwater pumping (which is not metered in California) can be specified or calculated by the model. Model calibration included automated selection of optimum hydraulic parameters using PEST, and manual selection of the areal and vertical distribution of groundwater pumping, to obtain the best match to historical groundwater heads and stream flows. The calibrated model is being used to calculate stream accretions and depletions for use in CALSIM-III, a reservoir-river simulation tool used for planning and management of the State Water Project and Central Valley Project, large surface water distribution networks in California's Central Valley.