Evidence-based requirements for perceptualising intercatchment groundwater flow in hydrological models

Oldham, Louisa D.; Freer, Jim; Coxon, Gemma; Howden, Nicholas; Bloomfield, John P.; Jackson, Christopher

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-761-2023

Articles | Volume 27, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-761-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-761-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 27, issue 3

Research article

|

14 Feb 2023

Research article |

| 14 Feb 2023

Evidence-based requirements for perceptualising intercatchment groundwater flow in hydrological models

Louisa D. Oldham, Jim Freer, Gemma Coxon, Nicholas Howden, John P. Bloomfield, and Christopher Jackson

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-761-2023-supplement

Data sets

Gridded estimates of daily and monthly areal rainfall for the United Kingdom (1890-2017) (CEH-GEAR) M. Tanguy, H. Dixon, I. Prosdocimi, D. G. Morris, and V. D. Keller https://doi.org/10.5285/ee9ab43d-a4fe-4e73-afd5-cd4fc4c82556

Climate hydrology and ecology research support system potential evapotranspiration dataset for Great Britain (1961-2015) (CHESS-PE) E. L. Robinson, E. Blyth, D. B. Clark, E. Comyn-Platt, J. Finch, and A. C. Rudd https://doi.org/10.5285/8baf805d-39ce-4dac-b224-c926ada353b7

Short summary

Water can move between river catchments via the subsurface, termed intercatchment groundwater flow (IGF). We show how a perceptual model of IGF can be developed with relatively simple geological interpretation and data requirements. We find that IGF dynamics vary in space, correlated to the dominant underlying geology. We recommend that IGF loss functions may be used in conceptual rainfall–runoff models but should be supported by perceptualisation of IGF processes and connectivities.