Flow recession in the ephemeral stream

Abstract

The recession portion of the ephemeral stream hydrograph is modeled as a conceptual analog of the discharge from a single leaky reservoir. Physically, the reservoir may be considered to approximate that portion of the ephemeral stream channel that is flowing at the beginning of recession. The discharging reservoir is described by a continuity equation and by discharge-stage and storage-stage relations. No input is routed through the reservoir. It is assumed that initially (at the beginning of recession) the reservoir has water in storage. The discharge-stage relation for the reservoir is defined by the rating curve for the stream and storage-stage depends on reservoir configuration. A good agreement between observed and model curves is obtained by optimizing two parameters, reservoir leakage rate and initial storage, The agreement is most sensitive to changes in initial storage. Best parameter values are physically realistic and best reservoir configuration has leakage that varies directly with stage (depth) and storage that varies as the square of stage.