Groundwater surface mapping informs sources of catchment baseflow

Abstract

Groundwater discharge is a major contributor to stream baseflow. Quantifying this flux is difficult, despite its considerable importance to water resource management and evaluation of the effects of groundwater extraction on streamflow. It is important to be able to differentiate between contributions to streamflow from regional groundwater discharge (more susceptible to groundwater extraction) compared to interflow processes (arguably less susceptible to groundwater extraction). Here we explore the use of groundwater surface mapping as an independent data set to constrain estimates of groundwater discharge to streamflow using traditional digital filter and tracer techniques. We developed gr..