Recharge rates to shallow groundwater from streamflow in arid zone catchments

Abstract

Recharge rates to shallow groundwater that occur during streamflow events are a poorly constrained part of the water balance of large rivers in arid zone catchments. Considerable research has examined transmission losses and recharge rates of ephemeral streams with predominantly coarse grained channel sediments but far less in known of corresponding recharge rates from rivers with fine grained channel and floodplain sediments that are more typical of many Australian arid zone rivers. The arid zone catchments generally occur in regions of high potential evapotranspiration and flux rates from groundwater recharge are difficult to separate from the large loss term of evapotranspiration. An esti..