PERCHED SOIL ZONE AQUIFER PACKAGE (PSZ) FOR MODFLOW-2005

An increasing number of investigators are looking at innovative ways to use precipitation data to calculate recharge to aquifer systems. Typically, simulation models are used to partition precipitation into evapotranspiration, runoff and recharge.Currently, the groundwater flow model, MODFLOW-2005, does not simulate dynamic near-surface hydrologic processes such as, infiltration, hortonian or dunnian runoff, return flow, or the effects of impervious surfaces on runoff. The Perched Soil-Zone package (PSZ) for MODFLOW-2005 is being developed to address these major components of hillslope hydrology for simulating watershed processes in the context of basin-scale groundwater flow modeling. This package extends MODFLOW-2005 capabilities to simulate soil zone processes in short time steps that are integrated to the much longer daily or weekly timesteps typically used in MODFLOW-2005.

A perched aquifer often develops in the soil zone during periods of heavy rainfall, delivering interflow to channels in a watershed. The soil zone is the upper most region of the vadose zone where plant and soil processes enhance storage and permeability, providing a fast pathway for water and solutes to streams. The soil zone connects the watershed surface to the deeper unsaturated, and saturated zones. Modeling of soil zone processes has been used to gain understanding of watershed hydrologic processes.

The PSZ package can use available data at finer time increments to ensure precipitation is properly distributed between infiltration and runoff. This physically based partitioning of precipitation allows for a more robust estimation of recharge. The PSZ package is intended to be used in basin scale MODFLOW-2005 simulations for efficiently simulating watershed hydrologic processes, especially those processes that partition rainfall into evapotranspiration, runoff, and recharge.