Shallow Aquifer Recharge from Irrigation in a Semiarid Agricultural Valley in New Mexico
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 18, Issue 10
Abstract
Irrigation percolation can be an important source of shallow aquifer replenishment in arid regions of the southwestern United States. Aquifer recharge derived from irrigation percolation can be more significant in fluvial valleys overlying shallow aquifers, where highly permeable soils allow rapid water infiltration and aquifer replenishment. This study used data from various irrigation experiments and data at the piezometric level to assess the irrigation percolation effects on the recharge of a shallow aquifer in an agricultural valley of northern New Mexico. The water balance method (WBM) and the water table fluctuation method (WTFM) were used to estimate aquifer recharge at the field scale () and the WTFM was used to determine recharge at the entire valley scale (). Also, the temporal and spatial distribution of aquifer response to irrigation percolation and canal seepage inputs was characterized. The results showed that for separate irrigation events at the field scale, aquifer recharge values ranged from 0 to 369 mm when using the WBM and from 0 to 230 mm when using the WTFM. For the cumulative irrigation season at the valley scale, recharge ranged from 1,044 to . A relatively rapid water table response with sharp water table rises and declines was observed in all but dryland location wells in response to canal seepage and irrigation percolation inputs. The results of this study add to the understanding of the mechanisms of shallow aquifer recharge and the interactions between surface water and groundwater in a floodplain agricultural valley of northern New Mexico.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
Authors gratefully acknowledge the technical assistance of the NMSU-Alcalde Science Center staff, especially David Archuleta, Val Archuleta, David Salazar, and Estevan Herrera. This material is based upon work supported by the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture under Agreement No. 2005-34461-15661 and 2005-45049-03209, by the National Science Foundation, Award No. 0814449 and Award No. 1010516, and by the New Mexico Agricultural Experiment Station.
References
Abdul-Jabbar, A. S., Sammis, T. W., and Lugg, D. G. (1982). “Effect of moisture level on the root pattern of alfalfa.” Irrig. Sci., 3(3), 197–207.
Ben-Asher, J., and Ayars, J. E. (1990). “Deep seepage under nonuniform sprinkler irrigation. II: Field data.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 116(3), 363–373.
Brooks, K. N., Ffolliot, P., Gregersen, H. M., and Debano, L. F. (2003). “Groundwater.” Hydrology and the management of watersheds, 3rd Ed., Iowa State Press, Ames, IA, 107–121.
Cevik, S. Y. (2009). “A long-term hydrological model for the northern Española Basin, New Mexico.” Ph.D. thesis, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM.
Delin, G. N., Healy, R. W., Landon, M. K., and Böhlke, J. K. (2000). “Effects of topography and soil properties on recharge at two sites in an agricultural field.” J. Am. Water. Resour. Assoc., 36(6), 1401–1416.
Dingman, S. L. (2002). “Ground water in the hydrologic cycle.” Physical hydrology, 2nd Ed., Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 325–388.
Fernald, A. G., Cevik, S. Y., Ochoa, C. G., Tidwell, V. C., King, J. P., and Guldan, S. J. (2010). “River hydrograph retransmission functions of irrigated valley surface water-groundwater interactions.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 136(12), 823–835.
Fetter, C. W. (1994). “Soil moisture and ground-water recharge.” Applied hydrogeology, 3rd Ed., Macmillan College Publishing Company, New York, 175–196.
Hargreaves, G. H., and Samani, Z. A. (1985). “Reference crop evapotranspiration from temperature.” Appl. Eng. Agric., 1(2), 96–99.
Hawley, J. W., and Kernodle, J. M. (2000). “Overview of the hydrogeology and geohydrology of the northern Rio Grande basin—Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas.” Proc., 44th Annual New Mexico Water Conf., New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute, Las Cruces, NM, 312, 79–102.
Healy, R. W. (2010). “Challenges in estimating recharge.” Estimating groundwater recharge, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 12–14.
Healy, R. W., and Cook, P. G. (2002). “Using groundwater levels to estimate recharge.” Hydrogeol. J., 10(1), 91–109.
Helmus, A. M., Fernald, A. G., VanLeeuwen, D. M., Abbott, L. B., Ulery, A. L., and Baker, T. T. (2009). “Surface water seepage effects on shallow ground-water quality along the Rio Grande in northern New Mexico.” J. Am. Water Resour. Assoc., 45(2), 407–418.
Jaber, F. H., Shukla, S., and Srivastava, S. (2006). “Recharge, upflux and water table response for shallow water table conditions in southwest Florida.” Hydrol. Processes, 20(9), 1895–1907.
Kohl, R. A., and Kolar, J. J. (1976). “Soil water uptake by alfalfa.” Agron. J., 68, 536–538.
New Mexico Climate Center (NMCC). (2010). “NMSU weather data at the Alcalde Science Center.” 〈http://weather.nmsu.edu/cgi-shl/cns/gdd.pl〉 (Apr. 4, 2011).
Nimmer, M., Thompson, A., and Misra, D. (2010). “Modeling water table mounding and contaminant transport beneath storm-water infiltration basins.” J. Hydrolog. Eng., 15(12), 963–973.
Nimmo, J. R., Stonestrom, D., and Healy, R. W. (2003). “Aquifer recharge.” Encyclopedia of water science, B. A. Stewart and T. A. Howell eds., Marcel Dekker, New York, 22–25.
Ochoa, C. G., Fernald, A. G., and Guldan, S. J. (2011). “Deep percolation from surface irrigation: Measurement and modeling using the RZWQM.” Soil hydrology, land use and agriculture: Measurement and modeling, M. K. Shukla, ed., CABI, Wallingford, UK, 231–252.
Ochoa, C. G., Fernald, A. G., Guldan, S. J., and Shukla, M. K. (2007). “Deep percolation and its effects on shallow groundwater level rise following flood irrigation.” Trans. ASABE, 50(1), 73–81.
Ochoa, C. G., Fernald, A. G., Guldan, S. J., and Shukla, M. K. (2009). “Water movement through a shallow vadose zone: A field irrigation experiment.” Vadose Zone J., 8(2), 414–425.
Ortiz, M. A., Brown, C., Fernald, A., Baker, T., Creel, B., and Guldan, S. (2007). “Land use change impacts on acequia water resources in northern New Mexico.” J. Contemp. Water Res. Educ., 137(1), 47–54.
Risser, D. W., Gburek, W. J., and Folmar, G. J. (2005). “Comparison of methods for estimating ground-water recharge and base flow at a small watershed underlain by fractured bedrock in the eastern United States.”, USGS, Reston, VA.
Samani, Z., and Magallanez, H. (2000). “Simple flume for flow measurement in open channel.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 126(2), 127–129.
Samani, Z. A., and Pessarakli, M. (1986). “Estimating potential crop evapotranspiration with minimum data in Arizona.” Trans. ASAE, 29(2), 522–524.
Sammis, T. W., Evans, D. D., and Warrick, A. W. (1982). “Comparison of methods to estimate deep percolation rates.” Water Resour. Bull., 18(3), 465–470.
Scanlon, B. R., Healy, R. W., and Cook, P. G. (2002). “Choosing appropriate techniques for quantifying groundwater recharge.” Hydrogeol. J., 10(1), 18–39.
Schmidt, K. D., and Sherman, I. (1987). “Effect of irrigation on groundwater quality in California.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 113(1), 16–29.
Singh, R., Kroes, J. G., van Dam, J. C., and Feddes, R. A. (2006). “Distributed ecohydrological modelling to evaluate the performance of irrigation system in Sirsa district, India: I. Current water management and its productivity.” J. Hydrol., 329(3–4), 692–713.
Soil Survey Staff. (2011). “Official soil series descriptions.” Natural Resources Conservation Service, United States Department of Agriculture, 〈https://soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/osdname.asp〉 (Feb. 2, 2011).
Sophocleous, M. A. (1991). “Combining the soil water balance and water level fluctuation methods to estimate natural groundwater recharge-practical aspects.” J. Hydrol., 124(3–4), 229–241.
Stephens, D. B. (2003). Jemez y sangre regional water plan, Daniel B. Stephens and Associates, Inc., Albuquerque, NM.
Sumner, D. M., Rolston, D. E., and Mariño, M. A. (1999). “Effects of unsaturated zone on ground-water mounding.” J. Hydrol. Eng., 4(1), 65–69.
Western Regional Climate Center (WRCC). (2006). “Alcalde, New Mexico (290245). Period of record monthly climate summary. Period of record 04/01/1953-12/31/2005.” 〈http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?nmalca〉 (Jan. 27, 2011).
Willis, T. M., and Black, A. S. (1996). “Irrigation increases groundwater recharge in the Macquarie Valley.” Aust. J. Soil Res., 34(6), 837–847.
Winter, T. C., Harvey, J. W., Franke, O. L., and Alley, W. M. (1998). Ground water and surface water: A single resource, USGS Circular 1139, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 30, 2011
Accepted: Sep 25, 2012
Published online: Sep 28, 2012
Discussion open until: Feb 28, 2013
Published in print: Oct 1, 2013
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.