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Aquifer recharge from flash floods in the arid environment: A mass balance approach at the catchment scale
Author(s) -
Farran Mohammed M.,
AlAmri Nassir,
Elfeki Amro M.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
hydrological processes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.222
H-Index - 161
eISSN - 1099-1085
pISSN - 0885-6087
DOI - 10.1002/hyp.14318
Subject(s) - groundwater recharge , hydrology (agriculture) , flash flood , infiltration (hvac) , environmental science , arid , aquifer , water balance , flood myth , drainage basin , groundwater , geology , meteorology , geography , paleontology , geotechnical engineering , cartography , archaeology
Estimation of the infiltration/natural recharge to groundwater from rainfall is an important issue in hydrology, particularly in arid regions. This paper proposes the application of The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) mass balance model to develop infiltration (F)–rainfall (P) relationship from flash flood events. Moreover, the NRCS method is compared with the rational and the Ф‐index methods to investigate the discrepancies between these methods. The methods have been applied to five gauged basins and their 19 sub‐basins (representative basins with detailed measurements) in the southwestern part of Saudi Arabia with 161 storms recorded in 4 years. The F–P relationships developed in this study based on NRCS method are: F = 39% P with R 2 = 0.932 for the initial abstraction factor, λ = 0.2. However, F = 77% P with R 2 = 0.986 for λ = 0.01. The model at λ = 0.01 is the best to fit the data, therefore, it is recommended to use the formula at λ = 0.01. The results show that the NRCS model is appropriate for the estimation of the F–P relationships in arid regions when compared with the rational and the Ф index methods. The latter overestimates the infiltration because they do not take λ into account. There is no significant difference between F–P relationships at different time scales. This helps the prediction of infiltration rates for aquifer recharge at ungauged basins from monthly and annual rainfall data with a single formula.