An Integrated Model of Surface and Subsurface Flows

Mr. Orhan Gunduz and Dr. Mustafa M. Aral

Multimedia Environmental Simulations Laboratory

School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Georgia Institute of Technology

Atlanta, GA 30332

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ABSTRACT

In this study, we present a coupled hydrological model to simulate all major flow pathways at the watershed scale. The modeling domain includes three layers identified as: (i) the overland flow zone; (ii) the unsaturated groundwater zone; and (iii) the saturated groundwater zone. In this approach, a two-dimensional overland flow model is coupled with a one-dimensional unsaturated groundwater zone model and a two-dimensional vertically averaged saturated groundwater zone model. The ground surface and the groundwater table are used as the two limiting boundaries of the unsaturated zone model and infiltration and/or constant head conditions are used as the internal boundary conditions linking the three zones. The proposed model is limited to lowland areas with negligible horizontal fluxes in the unsaturated zone. This approach requires less computational resources in the groundwater component when compared to its three-dimensional analogues.

Table of Contents

• Title: An Integrated Model of Surface and Subsurface Flows

• Objectives

• Coupled Hydrological Modeling: Highlights

• Coupled Hydrological Modeling: Proposed Study

• Coupled Model Structure

• Overland Flow Model: Governing Equations

• Overland Flow Model: Initial and Boundary Conditions

• Saturated Groundwater Flow Model: Governing Equation

• Saturated Groundwater Flow Model: Initial and Boundary Conditions

• Unsaturated Groundwater Flow Model: Governing Equation

• Unsaturated Groundwater Flow Model: Auxiliary Equations

• Unsaturated Groundwater Flow Model: Initial and Boundary Conditions

• Coupling Over Interfaces - 1

• Coupling Over Interfaces - 2

• Numerical Solution of Overland and Saturated Groundwater Flow Models

• Numerical Solution of Unsaturated Groundwater Flow Model

• Application: Simulation Scenarios

• Application: Physical Setup

• Application: Model Parameters

• Application: Numerical Discretization - 1

• Application: Numerical Discretization - 2

• Application: Initial and Boundary Conditions - Overland Flow Model

• Application: Initial and Boundary Conditions - Saturated Groundwater Flow Model

• Application: Initial and Boundary Conditions - Unsaturated Groundwater Flow Model

• Results: Groundwater Head Time Series

• Results: Overland Flow Depth Time Series

• Results: Unsaturated Zone Moisture Distribution

• Conclusions and Future Work

• Schematic of Integrated Model

• Acknowledgements

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