Is groundwater response timing in a pre-alpine catchment controlled more by topography or by rainfall?

Sammanfattning

Groundwater levels in steep headwater catchments typically respond quickly to rainfall, but the timing of the response may vary spatially across the catchment. In this study, we investigated the topographic controls and the effects of rainfall and antecedent conditions on the groundwater response timing for 51 groundwater monitoring sites in a 20-ha pre-alpine catchment with low permeability soils. The median time to rise and median duration of recession for the 133 rainfall events were highly correlated to the topographic characteristics of the site and its upslope contributing area. The median time to rise depended more on the topographic characteristics than on the rainfall characteristics or antecedent soil wetness conditions. The median time to rise decreased with Topographic Wetness Index (TWI) for sites with TWI

Nyckelord

groundwater; response timing; Topographic Wetness Index; topographic controls; subalpine catchment; rainfall threshold; antecedent wetness; spatial patterns

Publicerad i

Hydrological Processes
2016, volym: 30, nummer: 7, sidor: 1036-1051
Utgivare: WILEY-BLACKWELL

SLU författare

• Seibert, Jan

  • Universität Zürich
  • Uppsala universitet

UKÄ forskningsämne

Oceanografi, hydrologi, vattenresurser

Publikationens identifierare

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.10634

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/98753