Representativity and Challenges in the Simulation of Subsurface Flow at Hillslope and Subcatchment Scales: Case Studies from Quebec and Nova Scotia (Canada)

Details Representativity and Challenges in the Simulation of Subsurface Flow at Hillslope and Subcatchment Scales: Case Studies from Quebec and Nova Scotia (Canada) Representativity and Challenges in the Simulation of Subsurface Flow at Hillslope and Subcatchment Scales: Case Studies from Quebec and Nova Scotia (Canada)

Dec 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007agufm.h41h..01p&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, abstract #H41H-01

Statistics

Computation

1805 Computational Hydrology, 1829 Groundwater Hydrology, 1830 Groundwater/Surface Water Interaction, 1835 Hydrogeophysics, 1847 Modeling

Scientific paper

Soil on sloping bedrock is a common conceptualization in hydrological modeling at the hillslope and subcatchment scales. At these small scales morphology, vegetation, and climate can all be quite accurately represented, whereas pedology and geology are much more difficult to characterize. Thus further approximations, reasoned or ad hoc, are often introduced concerning the prevailing direction(s) of flow, the (im)permeability of the soil-bedrock interface, the presence or absence of layering and other inhomogeneities in the soil and aquifer, the influence of the unsaturated zone, the degree of interaction between the land surface and the subsurface, and so on. We will examine the impact of some of these approximations using data and simulations of sloping aquifers from two study sites, the Thomas Brook subcatchment in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia and a hillslope in Havelock, part of the Chateauguay river basin in southwestern Quebec. Two models, one based on a discretization of the full (3D) Richards equation coupled to a path-based surface routing model, and the other based on the 1D Boussinesq equation for groundwater flow in unconfined aquifers, will be used to assess groundwater recharge, saturation behavior at the land surface, soil water dynamics, and other variables in response to different representations of the soil and geology. Reliable estimation of two variables in particular, leakage/recharge and soil moisture/soil water storage, is critical to integrated water resources management, and combined use of data and models is crucial to achieving this task. These examples underline the point that accurate, inexpensive, and rapid noninvasive hydrogeophysical characterization of the subsurface on a hillslope or small catchment can contribute to important advances in hydrological simulation at these scales.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Representativity and Challenges in the Simulation of Subsurface Flow at Hillslope and Subcatchment Scales: Case Studies from Quebec and Nova Scotia (Canada) does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Representativity and Challenges in the Simulation of Subsurface Flow at Hillslope and Subcatchment Scales: Case Studies from Quebec and Nova Scotia (Canada), we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Representativity and Challenges in the Simulation of Subsurface Flow at Hillslope and Subcatchment Scales: Case Studies from Quebec and Nova Scotia (Canada) will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1483299