Precipitation Intensity Effects on Groundwater Recharge in the Southwestern United States
نویسندگان
چکیده
Episodic recharge as a result of infrequent, high intensity precipitation events comprises the bulk of groundwater recharge in arid environments. Climate change and shifts in precipitation intensity will affect groundwater continuity, thus altering groundwater recharge. This study aims to identify changes in the ratio of groundwater recharge and precipitation, the R:P ratio, in the arid southwestern United States to characterize observed changes in groundwater recharge attributed to variations in precipitation intensity. Our precipitation metric, precipitation intensity magnification, was used to investigate the relationship between the R:P ratio and precipitation intensity. Our analysis identified significant changes in the R:P ratio concurrent with decreases in precipitation intensity. The results illustrate the importance of precipitation intensity in relation to groundwater recharge in arid regions and provide further insights for groundwater management in nonrenewable groundwater systems and in a changing climate.
منابع مشابه
Variations in climate and ephemeral channel recharge in southeastern Arizona, United States
[1] Significant variations in interannual and decadal recharge rates are likely in alluvial basins of the semiarid southwestern United States on the basis of decadal variations in climate and precipitation and correlation of El Niño with high rates of winter precipitation and streamflow. A better understanding of the magnitude of recharge variations in semiarid and arid regions would reduce wat...
متن کاملImpacts of climate variability and changes on groundwater recharge in the semi-arid southwestern United States
متن کامل
Inventories and mobilization of unsaturated zone sulfate, fluoride, and chloride related to land use change in semiarid regions, southwestern United States and Australia
[1] Unsaturated zone salt reservoirs are potentially mobilized by increased groundwater recharge as semiarid lands are cultivated. This study explores the amounts of pore water sulfate and fluoride relative to chloride in unsaturated zone profiles, evaluates their sources, estimates mobilization due to past land use change, and assesses the impacts on groundwater quality. Inventories of water-e...
متن کاملآنالیز اثرات پارامترهای مختلف بر تغذیه آبهای زیرزمینی با استفاده از یک روش هیبریدی
Due to the time and space changes of hydrological events in the arid and semi-arid regions, recharge measurement in these areas is very difficult. Hence, groundwater recharge is a complicated phenomenon for which there is not a fixed method to determine. The aim of this research was to develop a method for estimation of groundwater recharge based on a hybrid method. In this study, a hybrid meth...
متن کاملIntegrated Assessment as a Step toward Reducing Climate Vulnerability in the Southwestern United States
NOVEMBER 2004 AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY | T he southwestern United States exhibits considerable interannual and interdecadal variability in climate (Sheppard et al. 2002), with over tenfold differences in winter precipitation from year to year.1 Summer monsoons and winter storms create a bimodal precipitation pattern. Winter precipitation is particularly important, because it provides muc...
متن کامل