Effective Ksat and Storage for CONUS


Authors:
Owners: Arik Tashie
Type: Resource
Storage: The size of this resource is 312.6 MB
Created: Mar 29, 2021 at 1:14 p.m.
Last updated: Mar 31, 2023 at 9:29 p.m.
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Sharing Status: Public
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Abstract

In land surface models, the hydraulic properties of the subsurface are commonly estimated according to the texture of soils at the earth’s surface. This approach ignores macropores, fracture flow, heterogeneity, and the effects of variable distribution of water in the subsurface on effective watershed-scale hydraulic variables. Using hydrograph recession analysis, we empirically constrain estimates of watershed-scale effective hydraulic conductivities (K) and effective drainable aquifer storages (S) of all reference watersheds in the continental US for which sufficient streamflow data are available (n=1561). Then, we use machine learning methods to model these properties across the continental. Model validation results in high confidence for estimates of log(K) (r2 > 0.89; 1% < bias < 9%) and reasonable confidence for S (r2 > 0.83; -70% < bias < -18%). Our estimates of effective K are, on average, two orders of magnitude higher than comparable soils-texture based estimates of average K, confirming the importance of soil structure and preferential flow pathways at the watershed scale. Our estimates of effective S compare favorably with recent global estimates of mobile groundwater and are spatially heterogeneous (5-3355mm). Because estimates of S are much lower than the global maximums generally used in land surface models (e.g., 5000mm in Noah-MP), they may serve both to limit model spin-up time and to constrain model parameters to more realistic values. These results represent the first attempt to constrain estimates of watershed-scale effective hydraulic variables that are necessary for the implementation of land surface models for the entire continental US.

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How to Cite

Tashie, A., T. Pavelsky, L. Band, S. Topp (2023). Effective Ksat and Storage for CONUS, HydroShare, http://www.hydroshare.org/resource/115409dbe8354e78a2c2219d32e2b9de

This resource is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
CC-BY

Comments

Arik Tashie 3 years, 9 months ago

To all:

If you have any issues downloading or interpreting this data, please feel free to reach out:
tashi002@ua.edu

This is the first large data set I've published, so I'd love to hear feedback about how to make the user experience easier / less painful.

Best,
Arik

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Ward Sanford 1 year, 11 months ago

Hey Arik:

Do you have a .csv version of your files?

I cannot open a .feather file.

Ward Sanford -- USGS

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Arik Tashie 1 year, 11 months ago

Hi Ward,
Sorry about that! I have no idea why I decided to share the data as a feather file instead of a csv. I've added a csv version, and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to reach out.
All the best,
Arik (arik@climate.ai)

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Arik Tashie 1 year, 11 months ago

To any future users: I am no longer at tashi002@ua.edu. Please email at arik@climate.ai.

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