The Exact Groundwater Divide on Water Table between Two Rivers: A Fundamental Model Investigation
Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Groundwater Circulation and Environmental Evolution, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China
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Water 2019, 11(4), 685; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11040685
Received: 13 March 2019 / Revised: 29 March 2019 / Accepted: 1 April 2019 / Published: 2 April 2019
(This article belongs to the Section Hydrology)
Abstract
The groundwater divide within a plane has long been delineated as a water table ridge composed of the local top points of a water table. This definition has not been examined well for river basins. We developed a fundamental model of a two-dimensional unsaturated–saturated flow in a profile between two rivers. The exact groundwater divide can be identified from the boundary between two local flow systems and compared with the top of a water table. It is closer to the river of a higher water level than the top of a water table. The catchment area would be overestimated (up to ~50%) for a high river and underestimated (up to ~15%) for a low river by using the top of the water table. Furthermore, a pass-through flow from one river to another would be developed below two local flow systems when the groundwater divide is significantly close to a high river. View Full-TextKeywords:
groundwater divide; water table; unsaturated–saturated flow; catchment area; pass-through flow
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Han, P.-F.; Wang, X.-S.; Wan, L.; Jiang, X.-W.; Hu, F.-S. The Exact Groundwater Divide on Water Table between Two Rivers: A Fundamental Model Investigation. Water 2019, 11, 685.
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