Implications of Hyporheic Flow on Temperature-Based Estimates of Groundwater/Surface Water Interactions
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 18, Issue 10
Abstract
The hyporheic zone has received significant attention in recent years due to its role in regulating the physical, chemical, and biological processes that buffer fluvial systems at a variety of scales. The exchange of water through the hyporheic zone is also important for the regulation of stream and streambed temperatures. Recent research has utilized stream and streambed temperatures to quantify groundwater discharge to streams using a variety of methods, including one-dimensional analytical solutions for vertical flux across the streambed interface. The presence of lateral flows, including hyporheic flow, will cause uncertainty in these analytical solution results. In this study, HydroGeoSphere, a three-dimensional, fully integrated surface/subsurface hydrologic model, is used to simulate the manner in which streambed heterogeneity influences groundwater/surface water interactions along a stream section, and the uncertainty of groundwater/surface water flux estimates based upon streambed temperatures. Groundwater/surface water exchange fluxes from numerical experiments of an idealized linear reach with homogeneous and heterogeneous streambed materials are compared to the results of a one-dimensional analytical solution of groundwater discharge to a stream using the numerically simulated temperature results. Both low- and high-variance distributions of hydraulic conductivity (ln variances of 0.85 and 17.0, respectively) along the streambed caused hyporheic flow, which caused significant discrepancies between the numerical and analytical groundwater/surface water flux results. A low variance in hydraulic conductivity did result in smaller discrepancies between the numerical and analytical solutions compared to the higher-variance simulations; however, the discrepancies between the low--variance simulations and the associated analytical solution interpretation still differed by up to an order in magnitude. The quantity of hyporheic flow increased with increased depth of heterogeneous streambed sediments, causing greater discrepancies between the analytical estimate and the numerical solution of groundwater/surface water exchange. In all simulations the analytical solution underestimated the exchange flux, and in the presence of hyporheic flow, the analytical solution was unable to capture the patterns of exchange flux at the streambed. The three-dimensional modeling approach produced an increase in the lateral flow components within the streambed compared to results inferred from one- and two-dimensional models employed in previous research. This three-dimensional approach enabled analysis of the spatial variability of error between the analytical and numerical results and determined that in environments with lateral flows, including hyporheic flow, the analytical solution is indicative of the patterns of the vertical component of fluid flow to the streambed.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.
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Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 18 • Issue 10 • October 2013
Pages: 1250 - 1261
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© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 22, 2011
Accepted: Oct 17, 2012
Published online: Oct 18, 2012
Discussion open until: Mar 18, 2013
Published in print: Oct 1, 2013
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