Surface and subsurface water balance estimation by the groundwater recharge model and a 3-D two-phase flow model

Land development often results in adverse environmental impact for surface and subsurface water systems. For areas close to the coast, land changes may also result in seawater intrusion into coastal aquifers. Due to this, it is important to evaluate potential adverse effects in advance of any land development. For evaluation purposes a combined groundwater recharge model is proposed with a quasi three-dimensional unconfined groundwater flow equation. The catchment water balance for a planned new campus area of Kyushu University in southern Japan, was selected as a case study to test the model approach. Since most of the study area is covered with forest, the proposed groundwater recharge model considers rainfall interception by forest canopy. The results show that simulated groundwater and surface runoff agree well with observations. It is also shown that actual evapotranspiration, including rainfall interception by forest canopy, is well represented in the proposed simulation model. Several hydrological components such as direct surface runoff rate, groundwater spring flow rate to a ground depression, trans-basin groundwater flow etc., were also investigated.