Effective Approach to Calculate Groundwater Return Flow to a River from Irrigation Areas
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 140, Issue 7
Abstract
An improved understanding of the water budget components in floodplain aquifers is necessary to implement and support water accounting requirements for use of river water. Of critical importance is the groundwater return flow as a result of recharge from irrigated water in a typical irrigation district near a river, which is the most uncertain and difficult component to be estimated. The objectives of this study are to (1) develop an effective but simple approach to estimate the amount of groundwater return flow to the river because of irrigation recharge; and (2) conduct uncertainty and sensitivity analyses of groundwater return flow to various recharge scenarios. The approach takes advantage of comprehensive drainage network typical in irrigation districts. The approach is evaluated and tested against numerical model results. It is found that the approach is accurate in calculating groundwater return flow for practical purposes of water accounting for less than 10% error. The authors further examine how groundwater return flow may change in response to variations in recharge distributions using the proposed approach. As long as information about river stage, drain stage, and distributions of irrigation water is available, the approach could predict changes in the amount of return flows.
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Acknowledgments
The funding support by the University of Wyoming and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is greatly appreciated. Paul Matuska and Kenneth Isakson at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation provided support to this study. The authors thank Roger Henning at the Palo Verde irrigation district and Jeff Milliken at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for providing some of the field data used in the study. Sandra Owen-Joyce and Stanley Leake provided helpful discussion and comments. The authors also thank Dr. Vladimir Mirlas and two anonymous reviewers for their careful reviews.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 140 • Issue 7 • July 2014
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 20, 2013
Accepted: Dec 2, 2013
Published online: Dec 31, 2013
Discussion open until: May 31, 2014
Published in print: Jul 1, 2014
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