Abstract
This research is concerned with new developments and practical applications of a physically-based numerical model that incorporates new approaches for a finite elements solution to the steady/transient problems of the joint ground/surface water flows. Python scripts are implemented in Geographic Information System (GIS) to store, represent and take decisions on the simulated conditions related to the water resources management at the scale of the watershed. The proposed surface-subsurface model considers surface and groundwater interactions to be 2-D horizontally distributed and depth-averaged through a diffusive wave approach for surface flood routing. Infiltration rates, overland flows and evapotranspiration processes are considered by a diffuse discharge from surface water, non-saturated subsoil and groundwater table. Recent developments also allow for the management of surface water flow control through the capacity of diversion on river beds, spillways and outflow operations of floodgates in weirs and dams of reservoirs. Practical application regards the actual hydrology of the Mero River watershed, with two important water bodies mainly concerned with the water resources management at the Cecebre Reservoir and the present flooding of a deep coal mining excavation. The MELEF model (Modele d’eLements Fluides, in French) was adapted and calibrated during a period of five years (2008/ 2012) with the help of hydrological parameters, registered flow rates, water levels and registered precipitation, water uses and water management operations in surface and groundwater bodies. The results predict the likely evolution of the Cecebre Reservoir, the flow rates in rivers, the flooding of the Meirama open pit and the local water balances for different hydrological components.
Highlights
At the present moment there is an increasing need for integrated surface and ground water numerical modelling
MELEF, the current tool used in water resource modeling, is a two dimensional finite elements model for regional surface and groundwater flows through drainage basins, developed for a temporal implicit (Eulerian) centered (Crank-Nicholson) and spatially centered (Galerkin) numerical approach
The results of the application of the model to the whole of the water resources at the Mero River catchment, during a total period of almost five years, that includes the recent hydrological history of the destination of surface and ground waters, related to the Cecebre Reservoir and the flooding of the Meirama open pit, provide a good variety of hydrological data based on the precipitation, the water usages, the calibrated parameters and the geology of the region
Summary
At the present moment there is an increasing need for integrated surface and ground water numerical modelling. Standard features of detailed process-based numerical models for water resources management at the scales of the watershed could include: a large variety of numerical conditions and sub-models for the different hydrological components, water uses and managements These characteristics will not be described in any case here; this research will focus instead on some new features and developments, summarized below, of an integrated surface-subsurface flow numerical model for suitable applications to practical water resources management in regulated watersheds. The application of the model is extended to fractured media and hydraulic anisotropy In this sense, this numerical approach (Figure 1) was mainly developed in order to analyze the surface and groundwater behavior at a watershed scale, and it can consider other water components such as the evapotranspiration process, that is a diffusive discharge from surface water and soils within the unsaturated zone by a Figure 1. Root water uptake sub-model, as well as the overland flow by a rainfall-runoff sub-model based on an exponential method for assessing the infiltration rates (Hernández, J.H. et al [23])
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