The Use of HYDRUS-1D for Groundwater Recharge Estimation

in Boreal Environments
Sergey O. Grinevskiy1 and Sergey P. Pozdniakov2
1
Hydrogeology division, Geological Department, Moscow State University, Leninskie Gory, MSU, Moscow, Russia,
sogrin@geol.msu.ru
2
Hydrogeology division, Geological Department, Moscow State University, Leninskie Gory, MSU, Moscow, Russia,
sppozd@geol.msu.ru

Abstract

The well-known package HYDRUS-1D (Šimůnek et al., 2009) was used for groundwater recharge
simulations based on long term meteorological data with daily resolution. For a boreal climate with a long
winter period, initial meteorological data such as precipitation cannot be used directly as the atmospheric
boundary condition in HYDRUS. This data must be preprocessed to take snow accumulation and snow
melting, evaporation from snow and vegetation cover, and soil freezing-defrosting processes into account.
For this purpose, SurfBal (Grinevskii and Pozdnyakov, 2010), a special preprocessing code for simulating
surface water and energy balances and generating upper boundary conditions for HYDRUS-1D was
developed. SurfBal calculates surface water balance using known daily values of precipitation, solar
radiation, and maximum and minimum temperatures. It calculates interception by canopy, surface (leaf
and snow) evaporation, snow accumulation, consolidation of snowpack and its melting and surface
runoff, as well as initial potential values of evaporation, transpiration, and input water fluxes for
HYDRUS-1D. The results of water balance and groundwater recharge simulations using SurfBal and
HYDRUS-1D for climate conditions of the south-western part of Moscow Artesian Basin show the
principal role of the spring-period surface-soil water budget for groundwater recharge under various
landscapes and soil cover, and the effects of various groundwater level depths.

1. Introduction

The methodological principles of regional estimation of groundwater recharge (GWR) by

atmospheric water infiltration are based on simulation of the water balance on the land surface
and unsaturated flow inside the soil cover and vadose zone to groundwater level (GWL). These
processes are generally identical for the uniform, typical natural conditions of GWR, which are
characterized by a combination of meteorological conditions, type of surface and vegetation, soil
and underlying vadose zone properties, as well as GWL depth. So the results of simulation of
GWR, obtained for each type (combination) of such conditions, may be extrapolated for the
corresponding part of the river basin (Crosbie et al., 2010; Grinevskii and Pozdnyakov, 2010).

In small-scale, regional consideration, the typical conditions of GWR are formed by the complex
of meteorological, landscape, vegetation, soil and hydrogeological factors, which jointly
influence the recharge heterogeneity (Fig. 0).

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 Groundwater recharge factors

Landscape Hydrogeological
Meteorological

Surface type: Relief: Groundwater level

forest Tableland Precipitation depth, z (m)
Temperature Drainage
grassland Slope 0-1 m (flood land) W<0
Humidity conditions 1-3 m (river terrace) W = f (z)
tillage Bottom
swamp Exposure Solar 3-5 m (slope) W = f (z)
radiation >5 m (watershed) W=сonst
water area South
urban land North

Soil texture Vadose zone texture:

Dispersed : Sand
Sandy Sandy Loam
Loamy Sandy Loam
Clay
Loamy
Rocky

Figure 1. Main regional factors of groundwater recharge.

Main features of boreal climate with regard to GWR processes are:

- the total precipitation exceeds total potential evapotranspiration, so the dry index is less than
one;
- the long winter season with temperatures below zero causes a high amount of solid
precipitation, accumulated in snow cover;
- winter thaws are usually very short and rare, and the upper part of the soil is frozen, so the
water seepage into the soil is negligible during winter season;
- the snow melting period is usually short and intensive, which causes the high volume of
snowmelt runoff.

All these features result in special variable upper boundary meteorological and flow conditions
for unsaturated flow simulations using HYDRUS-1D. The program code SurfBal was developed
to simulate the processes of precipitation and heat energy transformations on the land surface in
order to generate the upper boundary meteorological conditions for HYDRUS.

2. Model of Precipitation and Heat Energy Transformations on the Land Surface

(SurfBal)

The SurfBal integrates the next water budget equation at the surface:

dV
= P − E LS − S − v p ; V=VS + VL; ELS = EL + ES (1)
dt

where V is the total volume of water accumulated on vegetation (VL) and in snowpack (VS), P is
the precipitation rate, ELS is the total surface evaporation, including evaporation from canopy

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(EL) and snow cover (ES), S is the surface runoff, and vp is the potential infiltration into the soil
profile. Solution of Eq. (3) with daily time step gives a value of v ip for i-th day, which is passed
to HYDRUS-1D as the upper boundary condition:

v ip = P i ± ∆VS − ∆VL − S i − ESi − ELi (2)

where ∆VS and ∆VL equal daily changes of water volumes, accumulated in snow and on leaves,
respectively.

Tracking the temperature records, SurfBal calculates the interception of liquid precipitation by
the canopy PL (if the mean daily air temperature is above zero) as the well-known bucket model
(Vinogradov, 1988):

  Pi 
PLi = Λi 1 − exp i , Λi = Pmax

i
− V Li , Pmax
i
= K L LAI i (3)
 Λ 

According to this approach, total intercepted water is less than maximum storage Pmax,
depending on the daily value of LAI and water retention constant KL = 0.2 mm (Liang et al.,
1994). So, a daily variation of water accumulated by canopy depends on interception as well as
leaf evaporation EL, which is proportional to potential evapotranspiration ET0 (Liang et al.,
1994):

2/3
 Vi
0

∆V = V − V
i i i −1
=P −E ;
i i
E Li = ETi  iL  (4)
L L L L L 
 Pmax 

Daily values of potential evapotranspiration ET0 are calculated based on air temperature and net
solar radiation data by the Penman-Montheith or Priestley-Taylor methods (Allen, 2001).

The modified model of Gelphan and Kuchment (Kuchment and Gelfan, 1996) is used to
calculate snow depth dynamic and the release of melting water at the soil surface. Dynamics of
the snow depth HS at the surface is simulated by depth-averaged equations for the snow state,
considered as a three-phase system that includes solid phase ice with the density ρi, water with
density ρw, and void space. The model takes into account accumulation of snow during
precipitation when air temperature T <0, snowmelt, snow metamorphism, sublimation, refreezing
of melting water, and its flow to the soil surface through snowpack:

dΗ s
=  Ps χ 0 − ( L + ES ) χ I −1  − Vρ
dt
d
( IH s=) χ ( Ps − L − ES + Si ) (5)
dt
d
(θ H s ) = ( Pr + L − Vm − EW − Si )
dt

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where I and θ are parts of ice and water in snow volume, χ 0 = ρ w ρ s−01; χ = ρ w ρi−1 , Ps and Pr are
snowfall and rainfall rates, respectively, and Si is the rate of refreezing of melt water for T<0,
which is calculated as:

Si = K i T (6)

where Ki≈4.5 mm/ deg0,5/day is the empirical coefficient of water-ice phase transformations.

The total sublimation of ice ES and evaporation of liquid water EW from snowpack depends on
potential evapotranspiration ET0 (Budagovskii, 1981):

 β i ETi 0 , when VSi > β i ETi 0 i

( ES + EW )i = i ; β = exp(-δ LAIi ); 0.45< δ <0.55 (7)
VS , when VS < β ETi
i i 0

Vρ is the snowpack self-compression rate due to its weight:

=Vρ 0.5 K v ρ s H s2 exp (ξ1T − ξ 2 ρ s ) (8)

The snow melting rate L depends on the temperature and the current snow density ρs with the
empirical coefficient of snow melting Ks:

0; T <0
L= (9)
 K s ρ sT ; T ≥ 0

Vm is the release rate of melting water to the soil surface due to gravity-dominated flow of water
through the unsaturated snowpack:

 θ − θ max
= K f θ ; θ ; θ ≥ θ max
3.5

Vm =  1 − I − θ max (10)
0; θ < θ max


where Kf is the snow hydraulic conductivity, and θmax is the maximum water retention by snow.

The current snow density is:

ρi I + ρ wθ
ρs = (11)
Hs

and fresh snow density ρs0 is the function of air temperature:

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  ρ min ; T < Tmin

 T − Tmin
ρ=
s0  ρ min + ( ρ max − ρ min ) ; Tmin ≤ T < 0 (12)
 Tmin
ρ ; T ≥0
 max

The well-known curve number method (USDA, 1985) is used for calculations of daily surface
runoff. When T<0, daily curve number value CN depends on thawed or frozen status of topsoil
(Schroeder et al., 1993). The beginning of soil defrosting may be identified by a reverse weighed
average of air temperature for the last ten days Tth>0 and a current snowpack thickness Hs<0.2
m, with the empirical delay factor ε:

t
=Tth ∫ T (τ ) exp(−ε (t − τ ))dτ
t −tl
(13)

Because potential evapotranspiration ET0 characterizes total available water losses to atmosphere
due to energy limits of the landscape, the remaining daily part of ET0, except for losses by snow
ES and leaf EL evaporation, can be estimated:

ET p0 = ET 0 − E S − E L (14)

This value is the limit for soil evaporation and plant transpiration, which can be divided into their
potential values E 0p и TR 0p (Budagovskii, 1981):

E p0 = β ETp0 , TR p0= (1 − β )ETp0 (15)

where β is obtained from eq. (7).

The results of SurfBal calculations - daily values of inflow v p , and potential evaporation E 0p
and transpiration rates TR 0p - describe upper boundary conditions for the soil profile and are
passed to HYDRUS-1D as the atmospheric boundary condition.

3. Site and Data Description and GWR Model Parameters

With a total area of 49 600 km2, the investigated region is the south-western part of Moscow
Artesian Basin (MAB) and is located in the center of the European part of Russia. This is the
periphery, the edge of MAB, where the regional recharge of carboniferous aquifers takes place.
Mean annual precipitation varies in a south-north direction from 600 to 700 mm; mean air
temperature ranges from 5.0oC to 4.6oC. These differences are correlated with river runoff,
which also changes from 160 mm to 200 mm per year from south to north. For further
investigations, the observed daily values of total precipitation, mean, and minimum and
maximum air temperatures from 6 meteorological stations for a period of about 50 years were

5
used. The representative weather stations for different major river basins of the region were
selected by the statistical analysis and correlation between precipitation and river runoff.

The areal division of the region using the typical recharge conditions, including landscape,
vegetation and soil type, as well as the dominant texture of the underlying vadose zone and mean
annual GW level depths, was made. And for each type of GWR conditions, the model of surface
and vadose zone water balance was developed for a fifty year simulation period.

The main parameters of the surface water balance model (SurfBal) are presented in Table 1. CN
values in the curve number method reflect the mean areal runoff properties of the catchment.
Typical curve numbers were used as preliminary values and then were verified by river runoff
observations on stream gage stations.

Table 1. Main parameters of the SurfBal model.

Landscape type
Model parameter
Field Forest
LAI, min-max, [-] 0-3 2-8
Snow melting rate, Ks [cm4/deg/g/day] 4-6 1.5-3.5
Snow melting delay, ε, day-1 1 3
δ, [-] 0.45 0.55
Curve number, sandy soil 70 40
CN, [-] loamy soil 88 83
clayey soil 94 90

The snowpack dynamic model allows calibration of its parameters by comparing simulated and
observed snow depth during winter (Fig. 2). Main fitting parameters in this simulation stage are
Kv, Ks, Kf and ξ1, ξ2 in eqs. (8-10).

Figure 2. Simulated (lines) and observed (dots) snow depths for the 3-year period.

The soil profile for the unsaturated flow simulation consists of three model layers, which reflect
an average typical structure of the vadose zone (Grinevskii, 2010). The upper layer is the soil

6
horizon of the A type (humus horizon) and has the maximum variability of soil properties.
Moreover, water retention curve (WRC) characteristics not only depend on the lithological
texture, but also on the type of surface vegetation. The second soil layer, the illuvial soil horizon
of the B type, usually has a lower permeability than expected for such soil texture because of the
inflow of the organic matter from topsoil. The third model layer simulates the underlying parent
rock material (horizon C), whose properties are almost unchanged by pedogenic processes and
well-corresponded to the soil texture. Vertical model distribution of this layer is limited by GWL
depth.

Average characteristics of WRC van Genuchten equations (van Genuchten, 1980) for three
simulated soil profile layers, depending on soil texture and type of vegetation cover (for the
upper layer) were calculated using the well known program, Rosetta (Schaap et al., 2001) and
numerous soil data (Grinevskii, 2010), and were used for GWR simulation (Table 2). Data in
Table 2 show that WRC parameters for the top soil differ depending on the type of vegetation
cover. Besides this, the influence of vegetation cover leads to anomalous values of parameter α,
which decrease from loamy to sandy soil, unlike those for the underlying layers.

Table 2. Average van Genuchten WRC parameters for different soil layers, soil texture and types of
surface landscape (Grinevskii, 2010).

Soil texture / θr θs α, n Ks,

Landcape - - m-1 - m/d
Layer 1– Soil horizon A
Loam / Forest 0,041 0,525 1,00 1,388 0,562
Loam / Field 0,054 0,525 1,17 1,352 0,049
Loamy sand / Forest 0,038 0,532 0,79 1,486 0,73
Loamy sand / Field 0,033 0,500 1,08 1,494 0,27
Sand / Forest 0,029 0,482 0,34 2,280 3,85
Sand / Field 0,030 0,413 0,55 1,744 1,50
Layer 2 – Soil horizon B
Loam 0,055 0,427 0,60 1,352 0,07
Sandy Loam 0,038 0,412 0,90 1,442 0,21
Sand 0,022 0,366 1,25 1,578 1,21
Layer 3 – Soil horizon C
Clay 0,057 0,380 0,74 1,145 0,007
Loam 0,052 0,383 0,49 1,269 0,04
Sandy Loam 0,034 0,379 1,39 1,361 0,20
Sand 0,018 0,370 2,06 1,581 2,96

For root water uptake calculations, the S-shape function, which describes the water uptake stress
response function φ(h) in HYDRUS-1D (Šimůnek et al., 2008), was used:

1
ϕ ( h) = (16)
1 + (h h50 )
τ

where h50 represents the pressure head at which the root water extraction rate is reduced by 50%,
and τ is an empirical parameter. The beginning of decreasing root water extraction (φ(h) <1) due

7
to drying conditions in dependence of WRC and it’s specific points (field capacity and wilting
point) was defined by Li et al. (2006). Following this, values of h50 for different soil and
vegetation types were calculated (Table 3) using average WRC parameters (Table 2) as
(Grinevskii, 2011):

h *θ * h − hwp θ −θ
= 0.5 =
; h* 50 = ; θ * 50 wp (17)
TR p0 /(TR p0 ) max h fc − hwp θ fc − θ wp

where θfc and θwp are water content at field capacity and wilting point, hfc and hwp are
corresponding pressure heads, TR p0 and ( TR 0p )max equals average and maximum potential
transpiration rate during the vegetation period. In eq. (17) hfc = -3.36 m and hwp = -153 m, and
the corresponding θfc and θwp were calculated from WRC. Values of τ, which reflect different
rates of decreasing root water extraction ability due to drying conditions for trees and grasses,
were obtained by the best fit of calculated and observed φ(h) curves (Sudnitsyn, 1979). The
exponent tau was set smaller for trees produce a slower decreasing φ(h) curve, due to the trees’
best adaptability to water stress conditions.

The root distribution model takes into account the differences in root zone structure and depth
for various vegetation and soil textures. The exponential function (Gale and Grigal, 1987) of the
root distribution with depth was used for trees with bar root system. For grass vegetation with a
fibrous root system we used another root distribution function, offered by Hoffman and van
Genuchten (Šimůnek et al., 2008). Parameters of the root water uptake model thus reflect the
type of vegetation as well as soil texture (Table 3).

Table 3. Parameters of the root water uptake model (Grinevskii, 2011).

Vegetation type Soil h50, m τ Average root
depth, m
Loam -37.3 1.0
Trees Loamy sand -33.3 2 1.5
Sand -15.0 2.0
Loam -45.5 0.15
Grass Loamy sand -31.9 4 0.3
Sand -24.0 0.5

4. Simulation Results and Discussion

Using daily precipitation and temperature data and SurfBal and HYDRUS-1D parameters for
different types of vegetation cover and soil and vadose zone textures, as presented above, daily
and mean annual values of GWR (for the 50 year period) for each type of natural conditions
were calculated. These mean annual GWR values were extended to areas with similar GWR
conditions across the investigated region (Grinevskii and Pozdnyakov, 2010). Differences in
landscape, soil and groundwater conditions cause significant variability of mean annual GWR
rates – from 15 to 144 mm/year (Figure 3).

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 Figure 3. Differences in simulated mean annual GWR due to landscape and soil conditions (for
GWL depth >5 m).

Simulation results also show the strong landscape and soil type influence on seasonal surface and
vadose zone water balance variations (Fig. 4). The total sum of annual evapotranspiration is
almost the same, but for woody vegetation, the main part is the plant transpiration. In field
landscapes, the main part is evaporation. The principal differences for various landscapes are in
spring surface runoff, which forms during a short snow melting period (Grinevskii and
Novoselova, 2011). There is an intensive peak of water seepage to the soil in forest landscapes,
where snow isn’t melting as fast. Exactly during this period the upper inflow to the soil is
strongly variable and differs from precipitation data. This is the main reason for the landscape
differences in annual GW recharge and its seasonal variability (Fig. 4).

Figure 4. Simulated mean seasonal variations of surface runoff, potential infiltration to the soil
and GWR due to landscape and soil conditions (for GWL depth >5 m).

Figure 5. Mean annual GWR (W) as a function of GWL depth (Z) for different landscapes and
soil types.

9
Landscape and soil conditions also influence the relationship between mean annual GWR and
GWL depth (Fig. 5). Simulation results show that mean annual GWR increases with depth only
to a certain limit, wp, and can be approximated with the Pashkovskii equation (Shestakov et al.,
1982):

( γ)
w(z) =wp − ( wp − w0 ) exp − z (18)

where w0 and γ are fitted parameters. For shallow groundwater levels, the mean annual GWR
becomes negative as a rule, which means that the upward flow in the vadose zone by the
evapotranspiration processes dominates the downward flow. This means groundwater discharge
by evapotranspiration. The w0 is thus an asymptotic negative value, where GWL depth z=0, and
is close to ET0. The critical GWL depth z0, where mean annual GWR w(z)=0, can be obtained
from eq. (18). Therefore, for every landscape and soil type, z < z0 means GW evapotranspiration
discharge (w(z) < 0) and vice versa: when z > z0, w(z) > 0, which means recharge conditions.

Acknowledgments. This work was supported by RBRFoundation via grants 11-05-00478-а

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