Implications of variations in stream specific conductivity for estimating baseflow using chemical mass balance and calibrated hydrograph techniques

Cartwright, Ian

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-183-2022

Articles | Volume 26, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-183-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-183-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 26, issue 1

Research article

|

14 Jan 2022

Research article |

| 14 Jan 2022

Implications of variations in stream specific conductivity for estimating baseflow using chemical mass balance and calibrated hydrograph techniques

Ian Cartwright

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-183-2022-supplement

Data sets

Data for Cartwright 2022 Hydrol Earth Syst Sci. Ian Cartwright https://doi.org/10.26180/18247469.v1

Short summary

Using specific conductivity (SC) to estimate groundwater inflow to rivers is complicated by bank return waters, interflow, and flows off floodplains contributing to baseflow in all but the driest years. Using the maximum SC of the river in dry years to estimate the SC of groundwater produces the best baseflow vs. streamflow trends. The variable composition of baseflow hinders calibration of hydrograph-based techniques to estimate groundwater inflows.