Projects per year
Abstract
Shallow groundwater is a critical component of the terrestrial water cycle. It sustains baseflow in rivers, supplies root zones with soil moisture during dry periods, and directly influences the land-atmosphere exchange processes. Nonetheless, the integration of groundwater into large-scale hydrological models remains challenging. The most detailed way of representing groundwater dynamics is to incorporate three-dimensional, variably saturated flow processes in the subsurface representation of hydrological models. However, such detailed modelling is still a challenge for global hydrological applications, mainly due to its high computational demand. In this study, a free-surface boundary condition called the Groundwater Flow Boundary (GFB) is developed to represent groundwater dynamics in a more computationally-efficient manner than the full three-dimensional models do. We evaluate GFB using two synthetic test cases, namely an infiltration experiment and a tilted-v catchment, which focus on groundwater recharge and discharge processes, respectively. The simulation results from GFB are compared with a three-dimensional groundwater flow model and with an over-simplified approach using a free-drainage lower boundary condition to assess the impact of our assumptions on model results. We demonstrate that GFB is computationally more efficient compared to the three-dimensional model with limited loss in model performance when simulating infiltration and runoff dynamics.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 225-233 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Advances in Water Resources |
Volume | 123 |
Early online date | 4 Dec 2018 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jan 2019 |
Research Groups and Themes
- Water and Environmental Engineering
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Dive into the research topics of 'Towards a computationally efficient free-surface groundwater flow boundary condition for large-scale hydrological modelling'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 2 Finished
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NERC IOF Bristol - USP: Brazilian Experimental datasets for MUlti-scale Subsurface-surface interactions under Extreme Drought (BEMUSED)
Rosolem, R. (Principal Investigator)
1/02/18 → 30/08/21
Project: Research
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AMUSED: A MUlti-scale Soil moisture-Evapotranspiration Dynamics study - AMUSED
Iwema, J. (Student), Rahman, A. S. M. M. (Researcher) & Rosolem, R. (Principal Investigator)
30/11/14 → 30/05/19
Project: Research
Profiles
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Dr A S M Mostaquimur Rahman
Person: Academic , Member