Surface Water-groundwater Model Research Articles

Optimizing conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater for irrigation to address human-nature water conflicts: A surrogate modeling approach

In arid and semi-arid areas where agriculture competes keenly with ecosystem for water, integrated management of both surface water (SW) and groundwater (GW) resources at a basin scale is crucial, but often lacks scientific support. This study implemented physically-based, fully integrated SW–GW modeling in optimizing water management, and performed surrogate modeling to replace the computationally expensive model with simple response surfaces. Water use conflicts between agriculture and ecosystem in Heihe River Basin (HRB), the second largest inland river basin in China, were investigated. Based on the integrated model GSFLOW (Coupled Ground-Water and Surface-Water Flow Model), the conjunctive use of SW and GW for irrigation in the study area was optimized using a surrogate-based approach named DYCORS (DYnamic COordinate search using Response Surface models). Overall, the study demonstrated that, with the surrogate modeling approach, an expensive integrated model could be efficiently incorporated into an optimization analysis, and the integrated modeling would make feasible a physically based interpretation of the optimization results. In the HRB case study, the surrogate-based optimization suggested a very different time schedule of water diversion in opposite to the existing one, indicating the critical role of SW–GW interactions in the water cycle. With the temporal optimization, a basin-scale water saving could be achieved by reducing non-beneficial evapotranspiration. In addition, the current flow regulation in HRB may not be sustainable, because the ecosystem recovery in the lower HRB would be at the cost of the ecosystem degradation in the middle HRB.

Climatic controls on groundwater–surface water interactions within the Boreal Plains of Alberta: Field observations and numerical simulations

Hydrologic data were collected over eleven years at a catchment situated in low permeability glacial terrain within the Boreal Plains (Alberta, Canada) to evaluate the hydrologic interactions occurring between landscape units (i.e., shallow pond, extensive peatlands, aspen forested hillslopes). Two-dimensional numerical models were developed using a fully-integrated groundwater–surface water model to evaluate key landscape features that allow these ecosystems to persist within the sub-humid climate. Study results show that the dynamic interactions between the pond and peatlands are driven by precipitation and evapotranspiration. As a result, pond and peatland water levels reflect recent climatic trends. Limited hillslope contributions to the peatlands occur, indicating they are not required within this climatic setting for long-term maintenance. Instead, the peatlands conserve water within the landscape and supply it to adjacent landscape units. By contrast, the pond and the aspen forested hillslopes are dominated by high rates of evapotranspiration, and represent net water sinks within the landscape. Further simulations indicate these hydrologic systems are sensitive to pond and peatland evapotranspiration rates, and the hydraulic conductivity of the underlying glacial till substrate.

제주 외도천 유역의 통합 물수지 분석

Hydrologic component analysis was conducted to investigate water budget characteristics the Oedocheon watershed, Jeju Island. For this purpose, integrated SWAT-MODFLOW model was applied to this watershed for continuous surface water-groundwater modeling. Pasture and forest-deciduous are the major land use types and these affect general hydrologic component ratio. The spatio-temporal groundwater recharge can be obtained from SWAT and then distributed groundwater recharge can be reproduced by MODFLOW. The groundwater level variation was simulated with distributed groundwater pumping data. The water budget in this watershed was compared with the previous estimated result by Jeju-Do(2013). As this result considered discharge to the coastal side, the discrepancy was found. However, it was found that the overall tendency of both analyses were similar.

Impacts of model initialization on an integrated surface water–groundwater model

AbstractIntegrated hydrologic models characterize catchment responses by coupling the subsurface flow with land surface processes. One of the major areas of uncertainty in such models is the specification of the initial condition and its influence on subsequent simulations. A key challenge in model initialization is that it requires spatially distributed information on model states, groundwater levels and soil moisture, even when such data are not routinely available. Here, the impact of uncertainty in initial condition was explored across a 208 km2 catchment in Denmark using the ParFlow.CLM model. The initialization impact was assessed under two meteorological conditions (wet vs dry) using five depth to water table and soil moisture distributions obtained from various equilibrium states (thermal, root zone, discharge, saturated and unsaturated zone equilibrium) during the model spin‐up. Each of these equilibrium states correspond to varying computation times to achieve stability in a particular aspect of the system state.Results identified particular sensitivity in modelled recharge and stream flow to the different initializations, but reduced sensitivity in modelled energy fluxes. Analysis also suggests that to simulate a year that is wetter than the spin‐up period, an initialization based on discharge equilibrium is adequate to capture the direction and magnitude of surface water–groundwater exchanges. For a drier or hydrologically similar year to the spin‐up period, an initialization based on groundwater equilibrium is required. Variability of monthly subsurface storage changes and discharge bias at the scale of a hydrological event show that the initialization impacts do not diminish as the simulations progress, highlighting the importance of robust and accurate initialization in capturing surface water–groundwater dynamics. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

셀기반 지하수 개발가능량 산정기법

현재 우리나라의 지하수 개발가능량은 10년빈도 갈수시 함양량으로 결정되며 일정면적 이상의 수문학적 유역 또는 행정구역별로 넓게 구분되어 있어 소규모 유역의 지하수 영향평가에 적용하기가 어려운 면이 있다. 이에 본 연구에서는 셀기반의 지하수 개발가능량을 추정하는 새로운 기법을 경주지역에 대해 제시하였다. 이를 위해 지표수-지하수 통합 수문해석 모형인 SWAT-MODFLOW를 이용하여 셀기반 지하수 함양량을 산정하였다. 지하수 개발가능량을 결정하는 기준은 10년빈도 갈수시 강수량에 함양계수를 곱하여 추정하는 기존방식을 준용했다. 격자별 개발가능량을 산정한 후에는 목적에 따라 경주지역에서 143개로 세분화된 소유역별, 읍면리등 행정구역별로 개발가능량을 제시할 수 있었다. 지하수 이용량과 개발가능량을 연계하여 분석한 결과 경주시 전체 이용율은 평균 24%의 비교적 양호한 이용률을 보였으나 지역적으로는 7.1~108.8%까지 편차가 큰 이용현황을 보이는 것을 쉽게 확인할 수 있었다. 또한 임의의 시군구에서 지역별 추가 개발가능량도 평가할 수 있어 그 활용성이 기대된다. Sustaiable development yield of groundwater in Korea has been determined according to 10 year drought frequency of groundwater recharge in the standard mid-sized watershed or relatively large area of district. Therefore, the evaluation of groundwater impact in a small watershed is hard to apply. Fot this purpose, a novel approach to estimate cell based sustainable development yield of groundwater (SDYG) is suggested and applied to Gyeongju region. Cell based groundwater recharge is computed using hydrological component analysis using the SWAT-MODFLOW which is an integrated surface water-groundwater model. To estimate the potential amount of groundwater development, the existing method which uses 10 year drought frequency rainfall multiplied by recharge coefficient is adopted. Cell based SDYGs are computed and summed for 143 sub-watersheds and administrative districts. When these SDYGs are combined with groundwater usage data, the groundwater usage rate (total usage / SDYG) shows wide local variations (7.1~108.8%) which are unseen when average rate (24%) is only evaluated. Also, it is expected that additional SDYGs in any small district could be estimated.

Technical Note: Reducing the spin-up time of integrated surface water–groundwater models

Abstract. One of the main challenges in the application of coupled or integrated hydrologic models is specifying a catchment's initial conditions in terms of soil moisture and depth-to-water table (DTWT) distributions. One approach to reducing uncertainty in model initialization is to run the model recursively using either a single year or multiple years of forcing data until the system equilibrates with respect to state and diagnostic variables. However, such "spin-up" approaches often require many years of simulations, making them computationally intensive. In this study, a new hybrid approach was developed to reduce the computational burden of the spin-up procedure by using a combination of model simulations and an empirical DTWT function. The methodology is examined across two distinct catchments located in a temperate region of Denmark and a semi-arid region of Australia. Our results illustrate that the hybrid approach reduced the spin-up period required for an integrated groundwater–surface water–land surface model (ParFlow.CLM) by up to 50%. To generalize results to different climate and catchment conditions, we outline a methodology that is applicable to other coupled or integrated modeling frameworks when initialization from an equilibrium state is required.

Modeling surface water-groundwater interaction in arid and semi-arid regions with intensive agriculture

In semi-arid and arid areas with intensive agriculture, surface water-groundwater (SW-GW) interaction and agricultural water use are two critical and closely interrelated hydrological processes. However, the impact of agricultural water use on the hydrologic cycle has been rarely explored by integrated SW-GW modeling, especially in large basins. This study coupled the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM), which is able to simulate highly engineered flow systems, with the Coupled Ground-Water and Surface-Water Flow Model (GSFLOW). The new model was applied to study the hydrologic cycle of the Zhangye Basin, northwest China, a typical arid to semi-arid area with significant irrigation. After the successful calibration, the model produced a holistic view of the hydrological cycle impact by the agricultural water use, and generated insights into the spatial and temporal patterns of the SW-GW interaction in the study area. Different water resources management scenarios were also evaluated via the modeling. The results showed that if the irrigation demand continuous to increase, the current management strategy would lead to acceleration of the groundwater depletion, and therefore introduce ecological problems to this basin. Overall, this study demonstrated the applicability of the new model and its value to the water resources management in arid and semi-arid areas.

Estimating exploitable amount of groundwater abstraction using an integrated surface water–groundwater model: Mihocheon watershed, South Korea

A holistic approach to groundwater sustainability considers the hydrological, ecological, socio-economic and technological aspects of groundwater utilization. Exploitable groundwater should be determined by physical analysis, as well as by social compromises within a community. In this work, an integrated surface water–groundwater model, SWAT-MODFLOW, is used to examine changes in hydrological components due to various groundwater pumping scenarios in the Mihocheon watershed of South Korea. Under a total groundwater abstraction of 104 mm, which is slightly less than the amount currently permissible by law, a change in storage levels of –16 mm occurred. This abstraction value, which corresponds to 33% of the annual recharge, may be an exploitable groundwater reserve available to Cheongju City, Korea.Editor D. Koutsoyiannis; Guest editor V. Krysanova

Modeling coupled surface water – Groundwater processes in a small mountainous headwater catchment

Summary Hydrological models for headwater catchments have typically excluded deep groundwater flow based on the assumption that it is a negligible component of the water budget. This study tests this assumption using a coupled surface water–groundwater model to explore the potential contribution of deep groundwater recharge to the bedrock in a snowmelt-dominated headwater catchment (Upper Penticton Creek 241) in the Okanagan Basin, British Columbia. Recharge to the bedrock is estimated at ∼27% of the annual precipitation over the period 2005–2010, recognizing the uncertainty in this estimate due to data limitations, parameter uncertainty and calibration errors. A specified outward flux from the catchment boundary within the saturated zone, representing ∼2% of the annual water budget, was also included in the model. This outward flux contributes to cross-catchment flow and, ultimately, to groundwater inflow to lower elevation catchments in the mountain block. This modeling exercise is one of the first in catchment hydrologic modeling within steep mountainous terrain in which the bedrock is not treated as impermeable, and in which recharge to the bedrock and discharge to the surrounding mountain block were estimated.

Integrated hydrological modeling of the North China Plain and implications for sustainable water management

Abstract. Groundwater overdraft has caused fast water level decline in the North China Plain (NCP) since the 1980s. Although many hydrological models have been developed for the NCP in the past few decades, most of them deal only with the groundwater component or only at local scales. In the present study, a coupled surface water–groundwater model using the MIKE SHE code has been developed for the entire alluvial plain of the NCP. All the major processes in the land phase of the hydrological cycle are considered in the integrated modeling approach. The most important parameters of the model are first identified by a sensitivity analysis process and then calibrated for the period 2000–2005. The calibrated model is validated for the period 2006–2008 against daily observations of groundwater heads. The simulation results compare well with the observations where acceptable values of root mean square error (RMSE) (most values lie below 4 m) and correlation coefficient (R) (0.36–0.97) are obtained. The simulated evapotranspiration (ET) is then compared with the remote sensing (RS)-based ET data to further validate the model simulation. The comparison result with a R2 value of 0.93 between the monthly averaged values of simulated actual evapotranspiration (AET) and RS AET for the entire NCP shows a good performance of the model. The water balance results indicate that more than 70% of water leaving the flow system is attributed to the ET component, of which about 0.25% is taken from the saturated zone (SZ); about 29% comes from pumping, including irrigation pumping and non-irrigation pumping (net pumping). Sustainable water management analysis of the NCP is conducted using the simulation results obtained from the integrated model. An effective approach to improve water use efficiency in the NCP is by reducing the actual ET, e.g. by introducing water-saving technologies and changes in cropping.

Evaluation of the value of radar QPE data and rain gauge data for hydrological modeling

[1] Weather radar-based quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) is in principle superior to the areal precipitation estimated by using rain gauge data only, and therefore has become increasingly popular in applications such as hydrological modeling. The present study investigates the potential of using multiannual radar QPE data in coupled surface water—groundwater modeling with emphasis given to the groundwater component. Since the radar QPE is partly dependent on the rain gauge observations, it is necessary to evaluate the impact of rain gauge network density on the quality of the estimated rainfall and subsequently the simulated hydrological responses. A headwater catchment located in western Denmark is chosen as the study site. Two hydrological models are built using the MIKE SHE code, where they have identical model structures expect for the rainfall forcing: one model is based on rain gauge interpolated rainfall, while the other is based on radar QPE which is a combination of both radar and rain gauge information. The two hydrological models are inversely calibrated and then validated against field observations. The model results show that the improvement introduced by using radar QPE data is in fact more obvious to groundwater than to surface water at daily scale. Moreover, substantial negative impact on the simulated hydrological responses is observed due to the cut down in operational rain gauge network between 2006 and 2010. The radar QPE based model demonstrates the added value of the extra information from radar when rain gauge density decreases; however it is not able to sustain the level of model performance preceding the reduction in number of rain gauges.

Development and Analytical Verification of an Integrated 2-D Surface Water—Groundwater Model

DIVAST is a two-dimensional hydrodynamic and water quality numerical model developed for estuarine and coastal modelling. The original model enables the simulation of problems such as pollution and flooding in surface waters. In this paper the existing model is extended to allow the modelling of 2-D groundwater as well as surface water in the same model, using an integrated approach rather than two disparate models. The changes to the original model are summarised and the method of implementation is outlined. The new extended model (DIVAST-SG) is then tested against an analytical solution to verify that the model solves the equations correctly. The model is shown to predict the analytical solution for two different scenarios to within approximately 1 % of the height of flood wave.

Application of an integrated surface water-groundwater model to multi-aquifers modeling in Choushui River alluvial fan, Taiwan

This research proposes a combination of SWAT and MODFLOW, MD-SWAT-MODFLOW, to address the multi-aquifers condition in Choushui River alluvial fan, Taiwan. The natural recharge and unidentified pumping/recharge are separately estimated. The model identifies the monthly pumping/recharge rates in multi-aquifers so that the daily streamflow can be simulated correctly. A multi-aquifers condition means a subsurface formation composed of at least the unconfined aquifer, the confined aquifer, and an in-between aquitard. In such a case, the variation of groundwater level is related to pumping/recharge activities in vertically adjacent aquifer and the river-aquifer interaction. Both factors in turn affect the streamflow performance. Results show that MD-SWAT-MODFLOW performs better than SWAT alone in terms of simulated streamflow, especially during low flow period, when pumping/recharge rates are properly estimated. A sensitivity analysis of individual parameter suggests that the vertical leakance may be the most sensitive among all investigated MODFLOW parameters in terms of the estimated pumping/recharge among aquifers, and the Latin-Hypercube-One-factor-At-a-Time sensitivity analysis indicates that the hydraulic conductivity of channel is the most sensitive to the model performance. It also points out the necessity to simultaneously estimate pumping/recharge rates in multi-aquifers. The estimated net pumping rate can be treated as a lower bound of the actual local pumping rate. As a whole, the model provides the spatio-temporal groundwater use, which gives the authorities insights to manage groundwater resources. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Urbanisation and Shallow Groundwater: Predicting Changes in Catchment Hydrological Responses

The impact of urbanisation on catchment hydrological response was investigated by using a process-based coupled surface water–groundwater model (MODHMS). The modelling estimated likely changes in river discharge as a result of land-use change in the Southern River catchment in Western Australia, underlined by a highly transmissive aquifer, has permeable soils and a shallow watertable. A significant increase in total annual discharge was predicted as a result of urbanisation area with the runoff coefficient rising from 0.01 to more than 0.40. In contrast with urban areas elsewhere, these changes were mainly due to a shift in the subsurface water balance, leading to significant reduction in evaporative losses from the soil profile and shallow watertable after urbanisation (from nearly 80 % of infiltration to less than 20 %). The infiltration of roof and road runoff and establishment of subsurface drainage adopted in local construction practice leads to higher groundwater recharge rates and subsequently groundwater discharge to the urban drainage network. Urban density and groundwater abstraction for urban irrigation most strongly influence the urbanisation impact on catchment fluxes. The results shows that urban development leads to a production of ‘harvestable’ water; and depending on local needs, this water could be used for public and private water supply or to improve environmental flows.

Analysis of coupling errors in a physically-based integrated surface water–groundwater model

Several physically-based models that couple 1D or 2D surface and 3D subsurface flow have recently been developed, but few studies have evaluated the errors directly associated with the different coupling schemes. In this paper we analyze the causes of mass balance error for a conventional and a modified sequential coupling scheme in worst-case scenario simulations of Hortonian runoff generation on a sloping plane catchment. The conventional scheme is noniterative, whereas for the modified scheme the surface–subsurface exchange fluxes are determined via a boundary condition switching procedure that is performed iteratively during resolution of the nonlinear subsurface flow equation. It is shown that the modified scheme generates much lower coupling mass balance errors than the conventional sequential scheme. While both coupling schemes are sensitive to time discretization, the iterative control of infiltration in the modified scheme greatly limits its sensitivity to temporal resolution. Little sensitivity to spatial discretization is observed for both schemes. For the modified scheme the different factors contributing to coupling error are isolated, and the error is observed to be highly correlated to the flood recession duration. More testing, under broader hydrologic contexts and including other coupling schemes, is recommended so that the findings from this first analysis of coupling errors can be extended to other surface water–groundwater models.

Assessment of climate change impacts on the quantity and quality of a coastal catchment using a coupled groundwater–surface water model

The hydrology of coastal catchments is influenced by both sea level and climate. Hence, a comprehensive assessment of the impact of climate change on coastal catchments is a challenging task. In the present study, a coupled groundwater–surface water model is forced by dynamically downscaled results from a general circulation model. The effects on water quantity and quality of a relatively large lake used for water supply are analyzed. Although stream inflow to the lake is predicted to decrease during summer, the storage capacity of the lake is found to provide a sufficient buffer to support sustainable water abstraction in the future. On the other hand, seawater intrusion into the stream is found to be a significant threat to the water quality of the lake, possibly limiting its use for water supply and impacting the aquatic environment. Additionally, the results indicate that the nutrient load to the lake and adjacent coastal waters is likely to increase significantly, which will increase eutrophication and have negative effects on the surface water ecology. The hydrological impact assessment is based on only one climate change projection; nevertheless, the range of changes generated by other climate models indicates that the predicted results are a plausible realization of climate change impacts. The problems identified here are expected to be relevant for many coastal regimes, where the hydrology is determined by the interaction between saline and fresh groundwater and surface water systems.

지표수지하수 통합모형을 이용한 무심천 유역의 지하수 개발가능량 산정

우리나라의 지하수관리는 연간 지하수 함양량을 기반으로 수행되어 왔으나 지히수 함양량과 지표수-지하수 상호작용은 시공간적으로 변동하는 양이므로 지속적인 모니터링과 동적인 분석을 통해 지하수자원의 지속가능성이 평가되어야 할 것이다. 본 연구에서는 무심천 유역을 대상으로 지표수-지하수 통합해석 모형인 SWAT-MODFLOW를 이용하여 다양한 지하수 양수 시나리오(무양수 및 현 이용량의 1~3배)에 대한 수문성분 해석을 수행하였다. 현 이용량으로 양수하는 경우가 비교적 지속가능한 개발량으로 판단되었는데 이때 연간 기저유출량은 16%, 대수층 저류량은 27 mm 감소하는 것으로 나타났다. 지하수의 지속가능성을 평가하기 위해서는 지하수 이용에 따른 수문학적, 생태학적, 사회 경제적, 기술적 영향을 평가하는 총체적 접근법이 도입되어야 하며 이를 위해서는 물리적인 분석과 함께 지역사회의 합의 또한 중요한 의사결정 방식이라고 판단되었다. In Korea, groundwater management has been conducted based on the estimation of annual average of groundwater recharge. Since groundwater recharge and surface water-groundwater interactions show spatiotemporal variation, continuous monitoring and dynamic analysis must be carried out to evaluate the sustainability of groundwater resources. In this study, SWAT-MODFLOW, an integrated surface water-groundwater model was used to analyze surface-groundwater interactions for various groundwater pumping scenarios in Musimcheon watershed. When current usage is applied, the baseflow reduction is about 16%, and annual averaged storage reduction is about 27 mm for whole watershed. As a holistic approach to groundwater sustainability considers the hydrological, ecological, socioeconomic, technological aspects of groundwater utilization, the exploitable groundwater should be determined by physical analysis as well as social compromise in a community.

Combined consideration for decentralised non-potable water supply from local groundwater and nutrient load reduction in urban drainage

Integrated analysis of land use change and its effect on catchment water balance allows the selection of appropriate water and land management options for new urban developments to minimise the environmental impacts of urbanisation. A process-based coupled surface water-groundwater model was developed for Southern River catchment (Perth, Western Australia) to investigate the effect of urban development on catchment water balance. It was shown that urbanisation of highly permeable flat catchments with shallow groundwater resulted in significant increase in net groundwater recharge. The increased recharge creates the opportunity to use local groundwater resources for non-potable water supply with the added advantage of reducing the total discharge from new urban developments. This minimises the environmental impacts of increased urbanisation, as higher discharge is often associated with greater nutrient loads to receiving environments. Through the used of water balance modelling it was demonstrated that there are both water and nutrient benefits from local groundwater use in terms of reduced nutrient exports to receiving waters and additional water resources for non-potable water supply.

Comparison of Hydrological Simulations of Climate Change Using Perturbation of Observations and Distribution‐Based Scaling

Projected climate change effects on groundwater and stream discharges were investigated through simulations with a distributed, physically based, surface water–groundwater model. Input to the hydrological model includes precipitation, reference evapotranspiration, and temperature data of the HIRHAM4 regional climate model (RCM). The aim of this study was to determine whether the choice of bias‐correction method, applied to the RCM data, affected the projected hydrological changes. One method consisted of perturbation of observed data (POD) using climate change signals derived from the RCM output, while the other consisted of distribution‐based scaling (DBS) of the RCM output. Distribution‐based scaling resulted in RCM control period data closely approaching the observed climate data and thereby considerably improved the simulation of recharge and stream discharges. When comparing the simulations using both methods, only small differences between the projected changes in hydrological variables for the scenario period were found. Mean annual recharge increased by 15% for the DBS method and 12% for POD, and drain flow increased by 24 and 19%, respectively, while the increases in base flow were similar (7%). For both methods, daily stream discharges up to and including the median showed little change, while increases occurred for the higher quantile values. This study showed that the choice of bias‐correction method did not have a significant influence on the projected changes of mean hydrological responses in this catchment, although further analysis is necessary to determine whether extremes are affected. Furthermore, the characteristics of the hydrological system likely reduced the sensitivity of the projected changes to the choice of method.

Algorithm for Flow Direction Enforcement Using Subgrid-Scale Stream Location Data

Producing realistic surface water flow patterns can be difficult for hydrologic models when there is insufficient grid resolution as a result of computational constraints or when available digital elevation model (DEM) data are relatively coarse. This technical note describes an algorithm that allows for more realistic overland flow by incorporating subgrid-scale location data without increasing grid resolution. The algorithm takes location data from the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD), maps it to the hydrologic model horizontal grid coordinates, and produces a list of ordered points along the stream. Because the algorithm uses indexes to efficiently order points along the stream, large-scale meanders require special treatment, whereas small (grid) scale meanders are explicitly included in the algorithm logic. Slopes are ensured to be continuous along the stream's path as defined on the model grid, distinguishing this approach from traditional stream burning algorithms. Stream coordinates on the model grid are calculated along with corresponding elevation and slope values so that the can then be integrated into the DEM if desired. The algorithm's flow routing capabilities are demonstrated by using an integrated surface water-groundwater model, ParFlow, under rain and recession conditions. This case study is performed by using the real topography of Owens Valley, California, and NHD flowline data for the Owens River. An approach using a DEM that has undergone standard processing to fill sinks and a typical stream burning approach [similar to those often used in geographic information system (GIS) applications] fail to route flow out of the flood plain in ParFlow's overland flow model that partitions and routes topography-driven flow along adjacent cells in one of four cardinal directions. In contrast, this approach, with the river elevations and continuous slopes integrated into the DEM, routes water to the river and out of the catchment, creating more realistic surface flow patterns in the region. Although the method is applied here to address problems associated with a flat flood plain, it may also be applied to any area in which flow is discontinuous because of insufficient resolution of topography on a model grid. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)HE.1943-5584.0000340. (C) 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.