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Recharge Measurement in Arid and Semiarid Regions

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Arid Lands Water Evaluation and Management

Part of the book series: Environmental Science and Engineering ((ENVSCIENCE))

Abstract

Measuring the rate of groundwater recharge is particularly difficult in arid and semiarid lands, which are characterized by great spatial and temporal variability in recharge. Measurements of a limited number of local (point) recharge rates over a short (several years) period does not provide data representative of basin-wide rates. Most of the recharge tends to occur during rare large rainfall events and the recharge may be concentrated to certain geographic areas such as wadis or depressions that capture runoff. It is therefore highly misleading to assess and express recharge rates in terms of mean annual recharge or recharge as a proportion of the mean annual rainfall.The recharge measurement program must be capable of capturing infrequent and localized pulses of recharge. An additional consideration is that recharge rates in arid and semiarid lands are usually small relative to the resolution and errors of the measurement methods. The uncertainty introduced by errors in recharge rate measurement or calculation is an important consideration for regional groundwater flow models that are used for water management.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Schlumberger Water Services, 1567 Hayley Lane, Suite 202, Fort Myers, 33907, FL, USA

    Robert Maliva

  2. Water Desalination and Reuse Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia

    Thomas Missimer

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  1. Robert Maliva
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Maliva, R., Missimer, T. (2012). Recharge Measurement in Arid and Semiarid Regions. In: Arid Lands Water Evaluation and Management. Environmental Science and Engineering(). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29104-3_11

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