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Quantification of Groundwater Recharge

book cover quantification of groundwater recharge
Number of pages: 112

978-1-77470-114-0
https://doi.org/10.62592/BAUS7081

Citation:

Cook, Peter, & Brunner, Philip. (2025). Quantification of Groundwater Recharge. The Groundwater Project. https://doi.org/10.62592/BAUS7081.

Authors:

Peter Cook: Flinders University, Australia
Philip Brunner: Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland

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Released: 23 May 2025

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Quantification of Groundwater Recharge

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Description

Hydrogeologists should understand how groundwater recharges aquifers, the methods available for quantifying this component of the water budget, and the strengths and weaknesses of the different methods. Understanding the sources of recharge can be important for predicting the impacts of land use change and climate change on groundwater resources and for determining the vulnerability of groundwater resources to contamination by human activity. Recharge rates are also important input parameters for many groundwater models—models that are essential tools for predicting the impacts of groundwater extraction.

Changes in recharge rates can have important implications for groundwater resources and groundwater dependent ecosystems. Decreases in recharge rates—for example, during drought or due to climate change—can lead to declines in groundwater levels, leading to reductions in spring and river flows and adverse impacts on groundwater-dependent ecosystems. Increases in recharge rates—such as those due to urban development, land clearance or the development of irrigated agriculture—are often linked to rising groundwater levels and to groundwater flooding and the development of land and river salinity. In arid regions, increases in recharge can cause leaching of salts stored in deep unsaturated profiles, which can increase groundwater salinity. Quantifying rates of recharge and the timescale between changes in land use and changes in groundwater recharge are key to predicting impacts on groundwater systems.

This book begins by describing the relevant recharge processes, some of the principal methods for estimating recharge, and how the recharge rate is affected by rainfall, snowmelt, evapotranspiration, soil type, and land use. It also examines the spatial and temporal variability of recharge, and the spatial and temporal scales at which recharge can be measured. Case studies from around the globe are presented to illustrate the diversity of approaches used to understand and quantify recharge processes. The final chapter discusses the impact of climate change on recharge.

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Contents

1 INTRODUCTION

2 RECHARGE PROCESSES

2.1 Infiltration, Deep Drainage and Recharge

2.2 Piston Flow and Preferential Flow

2.3 Diffuse and Focused Recharge

2.4 Recharge From Rivers

2.5 Mountain Block and Mountain Front Recharge

2.6 Recharge Under Snow, Ice, and Permafrost

2.7 Human Impacts on Groundwater Recharge

2.8 Urban Recharge

2.9 Managed Aquifer Recharge

3 ASSESSMENT OF DIFFUSE RECHARGE

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Water Balance Approaches

3.3 Hydrograph Analysis

3.4 Chloride Mass Balance

3.5 Unsaturated Zone Tracers

3.6 Groundwater Age

3.7 Water Isotopes and Noble Gases

4 ASSESSMENT OF FOCUSED RECHARGE

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Hydraulic Head Gradients

4.3 Differential Flow Gauging

4.4 Groundwater Chemistry

5 RATES OF GROUNDWATER RECHARGE

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Diffuse Recharge Beneath Forests and Woodland

5.3 Diffuse Recharge Beneath Cropping and Grazing Land

5.4 Diffuse Recharge Beneath Irrigated Crops

5.5 Rates of Recharge from Rivers

5.6 Other Focused Recharge

5.7 Time Delays Between Changes in Infiltration and Changes in Recharge

6 SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL SCALES OF RECHARGE VARIATION

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Spatial Variability

6.3 Temporal Variability

6.4 Spatial and Temporal Measurement Scales

6.5 Recharge Maps

7 CLIMATE CHANGE AND RECHARGE

8 REFERENCES

9 EXERCISES

10 BOXES

Box 1 – Groundwater Recharge in the West Bank, Palestine

Box 2 – Recharge Processes in the English Chalk Aquifer

Box 3 – Recharge from the Gascoyne River, Western Australia

Box 4 – Recharge from the Ephemeral Kuiseb River, Namibia

Box 5 – Recharge from Tabalah Wadi, Saudi Arabia

11 EXERCISE SOLUTIONS

12 NOTATIONS

13 ABOUT THE AUTHORS

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