Authors: Muhammad Jawad, Aniket Gupta, Ali Behrangi, Guo-Yue Niu – University of Arizona
Title: Identifying the HUC-12 scale potential recharge area in the San Pedro basin using the NextGen Framework
Abstract: Groundwater is among the most important reserves of freshwater on the planet, critical for drinking water resources as well as for healthy ecosystem functioning. Groundwater reserves are replenished through aquifer recharge, which is highly responsive to climate change and land development. This study aims to identify the potential groundwater recharge sites in the San Pedro Basin by leveraging the Next Generation Water Resource Modeling Framework (NextGen), which is a research, development, testing, and operational system that can advance water resources and hydrologic predictions. The San Pedro River Basin is a transboundary watershed located in Southeastern Arizona, USA and Northern Sonora, Mexico. The climate in Southeastern Arizona is characterized by a bimodal precipitation regime caused by wintertime frontal systems and summertime convective systems. Summer rains, commonly called monsoons, start in early July and last until September, bringing convective thunderstorms with high intensity and short duration precipitation. We are using the CFE+Noah-OWP-Modular+T-route configuration to identify the potential water capture zones using three precipitation products (NLDAS-2, IMERGE and AORC) through water balance approach. We will first validate the model performance against streamflow, soil moisture, and ET measurements at various USGS and USDA sites and then expand the study to generate maps of the potential recharge zone, excessive runoff zone, and potential water loss zone. The final potential recharge zones will be prepared based on a multi-criteria approach.