Imperial College London
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ProfessorWouterBuytaert

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Professor in Hydrology and Water Resources
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 1329w.buytaert Website

 
 
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Assistant

 

Miss Judith Barritt +44 (0)20 7594 5967

 
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Location

 

403ASkempton BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Alemie:2019:10.1029/2019WR025050,
author = {Alemie, TC and Tilahun, SA and Ochoa-Tocachi, BF and Schmitter, P and Buytaert, W and Parlange, J-Y and Steenhuis, TS},
doi = {10.1029/2019WR025050},
journal = {Water Resources Research},
pages = {11088--11100},
title = {Predicting shallow groundwater tables for sloping highland aquifers},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2019WR025050},
volume = {55},
year = {2019}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - While hydrological science has made great strides forward during the last 50 years with the advance of computing power and availability of satellite images, much is unknown about the sustainable development of water for irrigation, domestic use, and livestock consumption for millions of households in the developing world. Specifically, quantification of shallow underground water resources for irrigation in highland regions remains challenging. The objective is to better understand the hydrology of highland watersheds with sloping hillside aquifers. Therefore, we present a subsurface flow model for hillside aquifers with recharge that varied from day to day. Recharge to the aquifer was estimated by the Thornthwaite Mather procedure. A characteristic time was identified for travel time of water flowing from the upper part of the hillside to the river or well. Using the method of characteristics, we found that the height of shallow groundwater level can be predicted by determining the total recharge over the characteristic time divided by drainable porosity. We apply the model to farmerdug wells in the Ethiopian highlands using observed rainfall, potential evaporation, and a fitted travel time. We find that the model performs well with maximum water table heights being determined by the soil surface and minimum heights by the presence or absence of volcanic dikes downhill. Our application shows that unless the water is ponded behind a natural or artificial barrier, hillslope aquifers are unable to provide a continuous source of water during the long, dry season. This clearly limits any irrigation development in the highlands from shallow sloping groundwater.
AU  - Alemie,TC
AU  - Tilahun,SA
AU  - Ochoa-Tocachi,BF
AU  - Schmitter,P
AU  - Buytaert,W
AU  - Parlange,J-Y
AU  - Steenhuis,TS
DO  - 10.1029/2019WR025050
EP  - 11100
PY  - 2019///
SN  - 0043-1397
SP  - 11088
TI  - Predicting shallow groundwater tables for sloping highland aquifers
T2  - Water Resources Research
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2019WR025050
UR  - http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000503924600001&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
UR  - https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2019WR025050
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/75845
VL  - 55
ER  -
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