Groundwater and surface water connectivity

Abstract

Surface water and groundwater are often treated as separate entities. However, almost all surface water is in continuous interaction with groundwater. In a few isolated cases there is virtually no interaction between the two, but in the majority of cases there is substantial interaction, albeit highly variable, temporally and spatially. Often surface water streams gain water from groundwater systems, and as a result extractions from groundwater will reduce streamflows. Sometimes the reverse is true, and groundwater is replenished by leakage from the streamflow channels (and/or from inundated floodplains); in these cases it is the withdrawal of water from streams reduces the recharge to groun..