Abstract
The rainfall of Korea in the summer monsoon period occupies more than 50% of the annual precipitation in most areas, and thus groundwater recharge to shallow aquifers is dominantly controlled by the amount and the pattern of monsoon precipitation. This paper presents two numerical models that demonstrate linear relationships between precipitation and recharge. First, a simple heat transport model employing a lumped parameter approach is presented for estimating two lumped parameters related to water flux and thermal diffusivity in the vadose zone. The model determines the parameters by a simple optimization process that minimizes the root-mean-square error between simulated and measured temperatures. The model is applied to 22-year time series data of soil temperatures measured at a synoptic station of Korea. The impact of monsoon precipitation on the thermal regime is clearly reflected in the simulated results by illustrating a linear relationship between precipitation and the water flux in the vadose zone. Secondly, an infiltration model is presented for analyzing variability of precipitation recharge in relation to the monsoon rainfall. The model simulates the unsaturated flow from time series data of precipitation and pan evaporation, assuming immediate removal of surface ponding, a linear relationship between the evaporation rate and the soil water content, and a static water table. Numerical simulations were performed for three soil textural groups by using 20-year meteorological data. The results demonstrate that the annual recharge is linearly proportional to the annual precipitation with varying degrees of the correlation coefficient depending on soil types. Sensitivity analyses show that the uncertainties in evaporation-related model parameters significantly affect the model results with controlling tradeoff between recharge and evaporation estimates.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allison, G.B., Gee, G.W. and Tyler, S.W., 1994, Vadose-zone techniques for estimating groundwater recharge in arid and semiarid regions. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 58, 6–14.
Anderson, M.P., 2005, Heat as a ground water tracer. Ground Water, 43(6), 951–968.
Anderson, M.P. and Woussner, W.W., 1992, Applied groundwater modeling: Simulation of flow and advective transport. Academic Press, San Diego, 381 p.
Binley, A., Buckley, K., Calore, C., Parodi, U. and La Barbera, P., 1997, Modelling uncertainty in estimates of recharge to a shallow coastal aquifer. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 42(2), 155–168.
Carsel, R.F. and Parrish, R.S., 1988, Developing joint probability distributions of soil water retention characteristics. Water Resources Research, 24(5), 755–769.
Celia, M.A., Bouloutas, E.T. and Zarba, R.L., 1990, A general mass-conservative numerical solution for the unsaturated flow equation. Water Resources Research, 26(7), 1483–1496.
Constantz, J., Stewart, A.E. Niswonger, R. and Sarma, L., 2002, Analysis of temperature profiles for investigating stream losses beneath ephemeral channels. Water Resources Research, 38(12), 52-1–52-13.
Constantz, J., Tyler, S.W. and Kwicklis, E., 2003, Temperature-profile methods for estimating percolation rates in arid environments. Vadose Zone Journal, 2, 12-24.
Disse, M., 1999, Validation of a simple model to determine regional evapotranspiration and groundwater recharge rates. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth (B), 24(4), 325–330.
Gee, G.W. and Hillel D., 1988, Groundwater recharge in arid regions: Review and critique of estimation methods. Hydrological Processes, 2, 255–266.
Goes, B.J.M., 1999, Estimate of shallow groundwater recharge in the Hadejia-Nguru Wetlands, semi-arid northeastern Nigeria. Hydrogeology Journal. 7, 294–304.
Guswa, A.J., Celia, M.A. and Rodriguez-Iturbe, I., 2002, Models of soil moisture dynamics in ecohydrology: A comparative study. Water Resources Research, 38(9), 5-1–5-15.
Healy, R.W. and Ronan, A.D., 1996, Documentation of the computer program VS2DH for simulation of energy transport in variably saturated porous media-modification of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Computer Program VS2DT. U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigation Rep. 96-4230, U.S. Geol. Surv., Reston, VA.
Hendrickx, J.M.H. and Walker, G.R., 1997, Recharge from precipitation: In Recharge of phreatic aquifers in (semi-) aric areas, Simmers I (eds). Balkema: The Netherlands, 19–111.
Hendrickx, J.M.H., Khan, A.S., Bannink, M.H., Birch, D. and Kidd, C., 1991 Numerical analysis of groundwater recharge through stony soils using limited data. Journal of Hydrology, 127, 173–192.
Ho, C.H. and Kang, I.S., 1988, The variability of precipitation in Korea. Journal of Korea Meteorological Society, 24(1), 38–48.
Hoffman, J.D., 1992, Numerical Methods for Engineers and Scientists, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Jeon, S.K., Koo, M.H., Kim, Y. and Kang, I.O., 2005, Statistical analysis of aquifer characteristics using pumping test data of National Groundwater Monitoring Wells for Korea. Journal of Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment, 10(6), 32–44.
Ketchum, J.N., Donovan, J.J. and Avery, W.H., 2000, Recharge characteristics of a phreatic aquifer as determined by storage accumulation. Hydrogeology Journal, 8, 579–593.
Lerner, D.N., Issar, A.S. and Simmers, I., 1990, Groundwater recharge: A guide to understanding and estimating natural recharge. International Contributions to Hydrogeology: Verlag Heinz Heise; 8, 345.
Miller, C.T., Williams, G.A., Kelly, C.T. and Tocci, M.D., 1998, Robust solution of Richards’ equation for nonuniform porous media. Water Resources Research, 34, 2599–2610.
Pohll, G.M., Warwick, J.J. and Tyler, S.W., 1996, Coupled surface-subsurface hydrologic model of a nuclear subsidence crater at the Nevada test site. Journal of Hydrology, 186, 43–62.
Ronan, A.D., Prudic, D.E., Thodal, C.E. and Constantz, J., 1998, Field study and simulation of diurnal temperature effects on infiltration and variably saturated flow beneath an ephemeral stream. Water Resources Research, 34(9), 2137–2153.
Silliman, S.E., Ramirez, J. and McCabe, R.L., 1995, Quantifying down-flow through creek sediments using temperature time series: One-dimensional solution incorporating measured surface temperature. Journal of Hydrology, 167, 99–119.
Stallman, R.W., 1965, Steady one-dimensional fluid flow in a semi-infinite porous medium with sinusoidal surface temperature. Journal of Geophysical Research, 70, 2821–2827.
Tabbagh, A., Bendjoudi, H. and Benderitter, Y., 1999, Determination of recharge in unsaturated soils using temperature monitoring. Water Resources Research, 35, 2439–2446.
Taniguchi, M., 1993, Evaluation of vertical groundwater fluxes and thermal properties of aquifers based on transient temperature-depth profiles. Water Resources Research, 29(7), 2021–2026.
Taniguchi, M. and Sharma, M.L., 1993, Determination of groundwater recharge using the change in soil temperature. Journal of Hydrology, 148, 219–229.
Theis C.V., 1937, Amount of ground-water recharge in the Southern High Planes. Trans. American Geophysical Union, 18, 564–568.
van Genuchten, M, T., 1980, A closed-form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 44, 892–898.
Wu, J., Zhang, R. and Yang, J., 1996, Analysis of rainfall-recharge relationships. Journal of Hydrology, 177, 143–160.
Wu, J., Zhang, R. and Yang, J., 1997, Estimating infiltration recharge using a response function model. Journal of Hydrology, 198, 124–139.
Zhang, L., Dawes, W.R., Hatton, T.J., Reece, P.H., Beale, G.T.H. and Packer, I., 1999a, Estimation of soil moisture and groundwater recharge using the TOPOG_IRM model. Water Resources Research, 35(1), 149–161.
Zhang, L., Hume, I.H., O’Connell, M.G., Mitchell, D.C., Milthorpe, P.L., Yee, M., Dawes, W.R. and Hatton, T.J., 1999b, Estimating episodic recharge under different crop/pasture rotations in the Mallee region. Part 1. Experiments and model calibration. Agricultural Water Management, 42, 219–235.
Zhang, T. and Osterkamp, T.E., 1995, Considerations in determining thermal diffusivity from temperature time series using finite difference methods. Cold Regions Science and Technology, 23, 333–341.
Zhou, Q.Y., Shimada, J. and Sato, A., 2002, Temporal variation of the three-dimensional rainfall infiltration process in heterogeneous soil. Water Resources Research, 38(4), 1-1–1-16.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Koo, MH., Kim, Y. Modeling of water flow and heat transport in the vadose zone: Numerical demonstration of variability of local groundwater recharge in response to monsoon rainfall in Korea. Geosci J 12, 123–137 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12303-008-0014-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12303-008-0014-9