Basin-Scale Assessment of Operational Base Flow Separation Methods
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 20, Issue 5
Abstract
Base flow recession analysis is required to estimate the long-term, reliable component of the hydrograph and water cycle, and for drought management, inflow design and analysis, and contaminant and nutrient transport. Operationally, recursive digital filtering (RDF) techniques are commonly applied; however, questions have been raised about the reliability and parameterization of these methods. A comparison of three base flow separation methods, including two popular RDFs and one hydrologic model, is performed in two base flow-dominant subbasins of the Grand River Basin in southern Ontario, Canada. The Eramosa River and Whiteman’s Creek subbasins are similar in size (236 and , respectively) and have similar annual runoff distributions yet significantly different physiography governing runoff generation. Subbasin physiographic characteristics are found to result in significant differences in annual base flow distributions, which are well captured by the hydrologic model but not by the RDFs. Stable water isotopes (SWIs) are applied for verification of base flow separations using two-component mixing model separations and show better visual agreement with a base flow derived from the hydrologic model over the RDF methods. Limitations include insufficient isotope data to quantify a statistically significant model fit and results that are tied to subbasin physiography and basin-specific processes. Results support the application of SWIs for regional hydrograph separation and highlight the need for more efficient, yet physically based base flow separation in regions with complex physiography.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the Laboratory for Stable Isotope Science (LSIS) at the University of Western Ontario for analyzing the Grand River isotope samples and all those who were involved with sample collection. We thank our reviewers for greatly improving this manuscript. We would like to thank Dr. Andrew Piggott, Environment Canada, for assistance with coordination of the water sampling. We would also like to thank the Grand River Conservation Authority for initiating the study and Drs. Kouwen and Edwards, who supported the WATFLOOD tracer module development. This is LSIS contribution #310.
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Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 20 • Issue 5 • May 2015
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© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 8, 2013
Accepted: Aug 27, 2014
Published online: Oct 6, 2014
Discussion open until: Mar 6, 2015
Published in print: May 1, 2015
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