Dilution Gauging as a Method to Quantify Groundwater Baseflow Fluctuations in Arizona's San Pedro River
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Author
Schulte, Marc Alan.Issue Date
1997Keywords
Hydrology.Groundwater Arizona -- San Pedro Basin -- Measurement.
Streamflow -- San Pedro River (Mexico and Ariz.)
Stream measurements -- San Pedro River Watershed (Mexico and Ariz.)
Committee Chair
MacNish, Robert D.Sorooshian, Soroosh
Metadata
Show full item recordPublisher
The University of Arizona.Rights
Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.Abstract
This thesis examines dilution gauging data from the San Pedro River east of Sierra Vista., Arizona in an attempt to quantify temporal and spatial fluctuations in groundwater baseflow to the stream. Dilution gauging measures volumetric discharge of a hydraulic system by determining the degree of dilution of a tracer solution input to the system. The basic equations of dilution gauging had to be modified to acknowledge conditions of unsteady flow and unsteady tracer flux by adding consideration of traveltime. The resulting hydrographs indicated that during wintertime conditions, the stream did not derive a great deal of its flow from the groundwater system. As the summer progressed and vegetative activity increased, the relative amount of discharge originating from the subsurface increased and the stream became more responsive to stresses from vegetative transipiration. This project was part of the Semi-Arid Surface- Land-Atmosphere (SALSA) program, a multidisciplinary effort to better understand the hydrology and ecology of semi-arid basins. This research was part of the 1997 SALSA research focus on riparian systems.Type
Thesis-Reproduction (electronic)text
Degree Name
M.S.Degree Level
mastersDegree Program
Hydrology and Water ResourcesGraduate College