Evaluating storm-scale groundwater recharge dynamics with coupled weather radar data and unsaturated zone modeling
Abstract
Groundwater recharge rates through the unsaturated zone emerge from complex interactions within the soil-vegetation-atmosphere system that derive from nonlinear relationships amongst atmospheric boundary conditions, plant water use and soil hydraulic properties. While it is widely recognized that hydrologic models must capture soil water dynamics in order to provide reliable recharge estimates, information on episodic recharge generation remains uncommon, and links between storm-scale weather patterns and their influence on recharge is largely unexplored. In this study, the water balance of a heterogeneous one-dimensional soil domain (3 m deep) beneath a typical rainfed corn agro-ecosystem in eastern Nebraska was numerically simulated in HYDRUS-1D for 12 years (2001-2012) on hourly time steps in order to assess the relationships between weather events and episodic recharge generation. WSR-88D weather radar reflectivity data provided both rainfall forcing data (after estimating rain rates using the z/r ratio method) and a means of storm classification on a scale from convective to stratiform using storm boundary characteristics. Individual storm event importance to cumulative recharge generation was assessed through iterative scenario modeling (773 total simulations). Annual cumulative recharge had a mean value of 9.19 cm/yr (about 12 % of cumulative rainfall) with coefficient of variation of 73%. Simulated recharge generation events occurred only in late winter and spring, with a peak in May (about 35% of total annual recharge). Recharge generation is observed primarily in late spring and early summer because of the combination of high residual soil moisture following a winter replenishment period, heavy convective storms, and low to moderate potential evapotranspiration rates. During the growing season, high rates of root water uptake cause rapid soil water depletion, and the concurrent high potential evapotranspiration and low soil moisture prevented recharge generation until late winter, even when intense convective storms took place. For this reason, about 86% of all precipitation events produce insignificant recharge contributions. Recharge responses to individual storms were nonlinear and did not cluster well with either storm amount or storm classification type. For example, ~7% of rainfall events fall near the 1:1 rainfall/recharge line and these events represent about 37% of cumulative recharge, and individual storms accounted for up to 4% of their annual totals. However, recharge events in late winter are mainly triggered by stratiform precipitation whereas in spring they are generally generated by convective storms. This novel approach to assessing storm-scale recharge may be relevant to several current challenges in the characterization of groundwater recharge processes, including the evaluation of their spatiotemporal distributions and the impacts of climate change on groundwater.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013AGUFM.H43D1491N
- Keywords:
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- 1875 HYDROLOGY Vadose zone;
- 1865 HYDROLOGY Soils;
- 1880 HYDROLOGY Water management;
- 1829 HYDROLOGY Groundwater hydrology