Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2004NE73B

Investigation of Groundwater Interactions with Surface Hydrologic Systems in River Valleys -- Using Modeling and Field Approaches

Institute: Nebraska
Year Established: 2004 Start Date: 2004-03-01 End Date: 2005-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $9,976 Total Non-Federal Funds: $38,003

Principal Investigators: Xun-Hong Chen, Jim Goeke

Project Summary: Groundwater is intimately connected to the surface water systems in the river valleys of Nebraska. This study is needed to provide an integrated measure of groundwater and surface water systems and integrated models of the system. Groundwater wells will be installed in the Platte River valley, Nebraska, where the depth to the water level is relatively shallow. These wells will be constructed in the areas near the U. S. Geological Surveys stream gauging stations and in the areas where the weather stations of the High Plains Regional Climate Center, headquartered at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, already exist. The stream gauging stations collect streamflow and stream stage data. These real-time data are available from the USGS web site. The High Plains Regional Climate Center collects hourly data on air temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, wind speed, wind direction, precipitation, rainfall, and soil temperature. The observation wells will collect hourly groundwater levels that may reflect the responses of groundwater to the changes in stream stage, precipitation, and evapotranspiration. The integrated observation of groundwater, stream and atmospheric conditions provides basic data for the analysis of the interactions between groundwater and surface water systems. Development of a cross-sectional numerical model is another task of this research. This model will include a groundwater flow model, a model for simulation of soil moisture movement in the vadose zone, and a crop model. This integrated model will simulate the interactions of groundwater with surface water systems. An inverse method will also be developed to determine the rate of groundwater evapotranspiration, as well as the streambed conductance of the Platte River, using the observed groundwater, stream and atmospheric data.