Predicting Groundwater Recharge for the Okanagan Basin: A Little HELP From the Locals

Estimates of groundwater recharge are an essential component in flow models; however, recharge is highly uncertain and difficult to quantify for dry regions. Since flow models are often used in water management planning, acquiring spatially variable recharge estimates at a comparable scale can be challenging. Regional scale recharge estimates must reflect trends of local scale processes to be effective in planning. This study examined how results from a regional recharge model compared to recharge estimated in separate, local scale models from opposing ends of the Okanagan basin, in British Columbia, Canada. At nearly 8000~km2, the north-south trending basin has a climatic gradient with a warmer, wetter climate in the north and hotter, drier conditions in the south. The region has become a popular area for tourism, residence, and agriculture, particularly orchards and vineyards. With surface water sources close to fully allocated, the region is turning to groundwater as a means to support increasing socioeconomic growth. Basin wide (regional) recharge estimates in the valley bottom are a critical step in managing groundwater resources. Regional estimates of recharge were determined with the Hydrologic Evaluation of Landfill Performance (HELP) code by establishing common areas of soil texture, water table depth and three other hydrologic parameters. Results from the regional scale were compared with two independently derived, local scale estimates of groundwater recharge. For the south Okanagan, regional estimates were compared with results from a high-resolution integrated HELP and MODFLOW analysis; and in the north Okanagan, regional estimates were compared to results from a study utilizing the Richards equation based MIKE-SHE code. Comparison with these two models, calculated in areas at each end of the climatic gradient, provide confidence in developing a map of regional groundwater recharge. Preliminary results illustrate the applicability of HELP for predicting basin-wide recharge for areas with shallow slope (limited runoff), accurate depth to water table (from a water well database), and detailed descriptions of vadose zone lithology.