A Regional-Scale Non-Stationarity Based Framework in Unsaturated Zone Flow Modeling
Publication: World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2021
ABSTRACT
Unsaturated zone flow modeling is now being used increasingly for groundwater recharge estimation. Groundwater recharge has an important role in groundwater systems management. However, accurate estimation of it still remains one of the most pressing issues in the field of hydrogeology. Moreover, since groundwater recharge is usually spatially distributed over a landscape, a regional-scale investigation seems to be necessary. In this study, a regional-scale non-stationarity-based framework is proposed, which with the help of inverse modeling against flow data from a large-scale soil moisture monitoring network models water flow through unsaturated zone using a multiple 1D soil column approach and by applying the numerical model HYDRUS-1D, to investigate the spatial distribution of groundwater recharge. In this framework, the study region is discretized into cells, and simulation is implemented at all cells using interpolated input data. This interpolation includes spatial non-stationarity investigation of the input data and their regionalization implementing a non-stationary kriging approach. The required input data are prepared and statistically analyzed for a case study. Furthermore, a simulation is performed through four focused stations. The study area is the state of Oklahoma, USA, where a unique extensive large-scale soil moisture monitoring network, namely the Oklahoma Mesonet, with 120 active automated stations covering the state (at least one in each of 77 counties) exists. The results show an existence of a spatial variability in input data, which stresses the importance of a regional-scale investigation. Moreover, according to the comparison of the observed flow data with the results of the simulations, incorporating inverse modeling into simulations seems to be essential. With the rapidly expanding large-scale soil moisture monitoring, this study can be used for other regions where such monitoring networks operate.
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World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2021
Pages: 52 - 63
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© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Published online: Jun 3, 2021
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