Quantifying groundwater recharge and discharge for the middle reach of Heihe River of China using isotope mass balance method
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Abstract: Quantifying the inflow and outflow of groundwater is essential to understand the interaction between surface water and groundwater. It is difficult to determine these elements in relation to groundwater recharge and discharge to the river, because they cannot be directly measured through site specific study. The methods of isotope mass balance combining with water budget were used to quantify the groundwater recharge from and discharge to the Heihe River, northwest China. The mean isotope ratios of monthly monitoring data for one hydrological year were selected to be the isotope rations of end members in isotope mass balance. The results from the isotope mass balance analysis, incorporating with the 35-year hydrological data, suggest that about 0.464×109 m3/a of runoff flowing out Qilian Mountains is contributed to groundwater recharge (about 28% inflow of the Heihe River), while about 1.163×109 m3/a of runoff is discharged from groundwater in the middle reach of the river, which accounts for about 46% of river runoff in the basin. The analysis offers a unique, broad scale studies and provides valuable insight into surface water-groundwater interaction in arid area.
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Key words:
- Arid region /
- Stable isotopes /
- Water budget /
- Surface water-ground water interaction
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Figure 3. Hydrogeological cross section along transect I-I' in Fig. 1
Table 1. The mean value of hydrological data of Heihe River
Period Q1 (109 m3/a) Q2 (109 m3/a) Q3 (109 m3/a) Q4 (109 m3/a) Qex1 (109 m3/a) Qex2 (109 m3/a) 1981−1990 (Wet) 1.744 0 0.600 7 0.025 9 1.094 0 0.660 5 0.736 8 1991−2002 (Dry) 1.540 0 0.449 5 0.017 8 0.766 0 0.669 5 0.647 1 1981−2015 1.733 0 0.568 0 0.021 5 0.999 0 0.665 4 0.687 9 Table 2. The isotopic data used in isotope mass balance method
Isotope ratio δ1 δ2 δ3 δ4 δex1 δex2 δrg δG δE1 δE2 δ18O (‰) −8.2 −7.7 −7.7 −6.1 −8.2 −6.7 −8.0 −7.3 −35 −30 δD (‰) −61 −58 −58 −56 −61 −57 −60 −61 −162 −152 Table 3. Results of river water loss and groundwater discharge calculated by isotope mass balance method
Period Method E1 (109 m3/a) Qrg (109 m3/a) E2 (109 m3/a) Gout (109 m3/a) 1981-1990(Wet) δ18O 0.015 0.468 0.085 1.289 δD 0.022 0.460 0.058 1.286 mean 0.019 0.464 0.072 1.288 1991-2002(Dry) δ18O 0.012 0.410 0.063 1.009 δD 0.017 0.404 0.044 0.999 mean 0.015 0.407 0.054 1.004 1981-2015 δ18O 0.014 0.485 0.078 1.176 δD 0.022 0.478 0.053 1.150 mean 0.018 0.482 0.655 1.163 1981-2002 Water budget 0.014 0.450 0.082 0.144 -
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