Integrated Modeling System for Flash Flood Routing in Ephemeral Rivers under the Influence of Groundwater Recharge Dams
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 139, Issue 12
Abstract
Flash floods in ephemeral rivers are characterized by pronounced runoff dynamics, rapidly rising hydrographs, and infiltration through permeable river beds. In numerous countries, this infiltration—which is commonly referred to as transmission loss—is artificially increased by means of dams to promote groundwater recharge of local aquifers. However, flow dynamics are significantly altered by dam operation, i.e., initially pronounced process dynamics are reduced and standing/receding wave effects may occur in downstream river sections. For the adequate portrayal of such flow processes, this paper develops an integrated modeling system for flow routing in ephemeral rivers with groundwater recharge dams. The proposed system is based on a process-oriented description of flow, infiltration, and reservoir evaporation and allows for a robust application under a limited data situation, as usually encountered in arid and semiarid regions. Particularly, the proposed framework accounts for (1) the considerable loss of mass and momentum from the weakly dynamic flow downstream of a dam, attributable to transmission losses; (2) the transient character of transmission losses, which are nonlinearly depending on time and changing channel flow conditions; and (3) circumvents any numerical inconveniences associated with the modeling of dam release flow over initially dry beds by employing an analytical solution procedure of the governing flow equations. Following a comprehensive sensitivity analysis, relevant process parameters are estimated and the modeling system is applied for Wadi Ma’awil, Northern Oman. The application demonstrates both the system’s accurateness and robustness for flash flood routing under transmission losses along the wadi, where a recharge dam causes strong flow retention. Therefore, the proposed modeling system can aid in deriving potential groundwater recharge rates, which is of high importance for a sound water resources assessment in the study area.
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Acknowledgments
The manuscript was prepared within the research project IWAS, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under grant No. 2WM1166. Additionally, we wish to thank the Ministry of Regional Municipalities, Environment and Water Resources of the Sultanate of Oman for supporting the IWAS IWRM project. The ASTER data were obtained through the online Data Pool at the NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC), USGS/Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota (https://lpdaac.usgs.gov).
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Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 139 • Issue 12 • December 2013
Pages: 1234 - 1246
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 7, 2012
Accepted: Apr 11, 2013
Published online: Apr 13, 2013
Discussion open until: Sep 13, 2013
Published in print: Dec 1, 2013
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