Journal article
Spatiotemporal Responses of Groundwater Flow and Aquifer-River Exchanges to Flood Events
Water resources research, Vol.54(3), pp.1513-1532
03/01/2018
DOI: 10.1002/2017WR022046
Abstract
Rapidly rising river stages induced by flood events lead to considerable river water infiltration into aquifers and carry surface-borne solutes into hyporheic zones which are widely recognized as an important place for the biogeochemical activity. Existing studies for surface-groundwater exchanges induced by flood events usually limit to a river-aquifer cross section that is perpendicular to river channels, and neglect groundwater flow in parallel with river channels. In this study, surface-groundwater exchanges to a flood event are investigated with specific considerations of unconfined flow in direction that is in parallel with river channels. The groundwater flow is described by a two-dimensional Boussinesq equation and the flood event is described by a diffusive-type flood wave. Analytical solutions are derived and tested using the numerical solution. The results indicate that river water infiltrates into aquifers quickly during flood events, and mostly returns to the river within a short period of time after the flood event. However, the rest river water will stay in aquifers for a long period of time. The residual river water not only flows back to rivers but also flows to downstream aquifers. The one-dimensional model of neglecting flow in the direction parallel with river channels will overestimate heads and discharge in upstream aquifers. The return flow induced by the flood event has a power law form with time and has a significant impact on the base flow recession at early times. The solution can match the observed hydraulic heads in riparian zone wells of Iowa during flood events.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Spatiotemporal Responses of Groundwater Flow and Aquifer-River Exchanges to Flood Events
- Creators
- Xiuyu Liang - Southern University of Science and TechnologyHongbin Zhan - Texas A&M UniversityKeith Schilling - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Water resources research, Vol.54(3), pp.1513-1532
- Publisher
- Amer Geophysical Union
- DOI
- 10.1002/2017WR022046
- ISSN
- 0043-1397
- eISSN
- 1944-7973
- Number of pages
- 20
- Grant note
- 41330314; 41302180; 41521001; 41372253 / National Natural Science Foundation of China; National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) 2015ZX07204-007 / National Key project "Water Pollution Control" of China BE2015708 / program "The Social Development-Science & Technology Demonstration Projects" - Department of Science and Technology of Jiangsu Province
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 03/01/2018
- Academic Unit
- Earth and Environmental Sciences; IIHR--Hydroscience and Engineering
- Record Identifier
- 9984383289602771
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