Groundwater and meltwater in the snowmelt induced runoff

Abstract

The snowmelt runoff process from small basins is discussed. A differentiation is made between overland flow in the snowpack and groundwater flow induced by infiltrating meltwater. The effect of variations of the snowmelt intensity on streamflow is studied. It is shown that the runoff is high from the first day of snowmelt runoff if the streamflow is caused by overland flow, and that there are pronounced peaks every day, which almost correspond with the snowmelt intensity during daytime. Streamflow originating from groundwater, on the other hand, increases continuously during the snowmelt and shows only small daily peaks in the flow. Simultaneous overland and groundwater flow are also discussed. Observed runoff hydrographs from small basins are analysed in some detail. For the open fields studied the runoff shows the typical character of overland flow. For a rather large forested area the surface runoff also constitutes an important part of the runoff, but the groundwater baseflow is considerable.