Spatiotemporal hydrological analysis of streamflows and groundwater recharge for sustainable water management in Prince Edward Island, Canada

Abstract

AbstractPrince Edward Island (PEI), Canada, entirely depends on groundwater for freshwater supplies, which also highly feeds streamflows. In a few watersheds, pumping has had disturbed steady‐state conditions and reduced streamflows. Spatiotemporal hydrological analysis of streamflows and recharges was performed in its scattered watersheds. Mill, Wilmot, West, Winter, and Bear River watersheds were modeled by the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) under the shallow water‐table conditions, besides other analyses. The model was calibrated against 120 observed mean monthly flows (1995–2004) and validated for another 120 observations (2005–2014), with Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) as the major performance assessment parameter. The model accurately simulated mean monthly flows for all watersheds during 1995–2014, except Winter River watershed (NSE = 0.02–0.33), wherein it overpredicted by 31%–52% and 5–12% in Wilmot River (NSE = 0.28–0.64). Streamflows were found highly dependent on groundwater; therefore, pumpings of 6.92 and 0.73 million cubic meters (MCM)/year caused the overpredictions in Winter and Wilmot watersheds, as SWAT cannot account pumping. In the rest three watersheds with negligible pumping, 4%–18% underprediction was due to multisite calibration. Spatially, streamflows randomly varied between 555 and 811 mm/year across watersheds, whereas thick and highly permeable sandstone produced higher recharges, the maximum ~600 mm/year in the eastern forest‐dominated Bear River watershed, lesser in western ~330 mm/year, and moderate ~450 mm/year in central watersheds. Temporally, March–May are the months of highest streamflows, whereas recharge is maximum during April–July. The succession trend justified strong surface water–groundwater interactions. Existing Water Extraction Permitting Policy ensures sustainability at the island scale. It sets pumping limit at 20% of recharge, that is, 0.48 km3/year altogether, against the present pumping of ~0.04 km3/year, yet a few watersheds are somewhat water‐stressed due to population and pumping concentration. Expansion of streamflow and groundwater monitoring, promoting population and pumping in rural areas, and more scrutiny for further pumping permits in water‐stressed watersheds are quite important for sustainable water management in PEI.