The Role of Groundwater Withdrawals on River Regulation: Example From the Columbia River Basin
Abstract
The Columbia River Basin (CRB) is heavily regulated by more than 250 dams on its river system while depending significantly on groundwater withdrawals in certain sub-basins. Neglecting groundwater withdrawals in hydrologic models of the basin could result in inaccurate predictions of its water budget and thus mislead water management decisions in the basin. This work aims to understand the impacts of groundwater pumping on the spatiotemporal patterns of modeling regulated streamflow in the CRB using a modified version of the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model integrated with a water management component that accounts for groundwater withdrawals, irrigation demands, and reservoir operation (VIC-GIRR). The VIC-GIRR simulations showed that considering additional groundwater withdrawals would alleviate the stress of irrigation water deficit in the Snake River Basin with an average reduction of 10 km3/year. Such a reduction in water deficit resulted in slight streamflow increase over the CRB with maximum increase up to 40% during dry period in certain locations. We also note that the implementation of groundwater withdrawal does not, however, improve the overall model performance in long-term averaged streamflow and storage predictions. Our results highlight the efforts needed to examine additional important processes in representing the interactions between water withdrawals andmore »
- Authors:
-
[1];
[2];
[3];
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Silver Spring, MD (United States)
- Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States); CarbonPlan, San Francisco, CA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Earth and Environmental Systems Science Division
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1886264
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-156712
Journal ID: ISSN 0043-1397
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Water Resources Research
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 58; Journal Issue: 6; Journal ID: ISSN 0043-1397
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Columbia River; reservoir operation; VIC; groundwater; irrigation; water management
Citation Formats
Eldardiry, Hisham, Zhou, Tian, Huang, Maoyi, and Chegwidden, Oriana S. The Role of Groundwater Withdrawals on River Regulation: Example From the Columbia River Basin. United States: N. p., 2022.
Web. doi:10.1029/2020wr028955.
Eldardiry, Hisham, Zhou, Tian, Huang, Maoyi, & Chegwidden, Oriana S. The Role of Groundwater Withdrawals on River Regulation: Example From the Columbia River Basin. United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020wr028955
Eldardiry, Hisham, Zhou, Tian, Huang, Maoyi, and Chegwidden, Oriana S. Mon .
"The Role of Groundwater Withdrawals on River Regulation: Example From the Columbia River Basin". United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020wr028955. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1886264.
@article{osti_1886264,
title = {The Role of Groundwater Withdrawals on River Regulation: Example From the Columbia River Basin},
author = {Eldardiry, Hisham and Zhou, Tian and Huang, Maoyi and Chegwidden, Oriana S.},
abstractNote = {The Columbia River Basin (CRB) is heavily regulated by more than 250 dams on its river system while depending significantly on groundwater withdrawals in certain sub-basins. Neglecting groundwater withdrawals in hydrologic models of the basin could result in inaccurate predictions of its water budget and thus mislead water management decisions in the basin. This work aims to understand the impacts of groundwater pumping on the spatiotemporal patterns of modeling regulated streamflow in the CRB using a modified version of the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model integrated with a water management component that accounts for groundwater withdrawals, irrigation demands, and reservoir operation (VIC-GIRR). The VIC-GIRR simulations showed that considering additional groundwater withdrawals would alleviate the stress of irrigation water deficit in the Snake River Basin with an average reduction of 10 km3/year. Such a reduction in water deficit resulted in slight streamflow increase over the CRB with maximum increase up to 40% during dry period in certain locations. We also note that the implementation of groundwater withdrawal does not, however, improve the overall model performance in long-term averaged streamflow and storage predictions. Our results highlight the efforts needed to examine additional important processes in representing the interactions between water withdrawals and reservoir operations. Such efforts will aid in better simulation of multi-reservoir system and improve effectiveness for agricultural productivity, power generation, flood control, and navigation purposes.},
doi = {10.1029/2020wr028955},
journal = {Water Resources Research},
number = 6,
volume = 58,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Jun 20 00:00:00 EDT 2022},
month = {Mon Jun 20 00:00:00 EDT 2022}
}
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