Integrated Surface–Subsurface Modeling of Fuxianhu Lake Catchment, Southwest China

This paper describes an integrated surface–subsurface modeling study of the Fuxianhu Lake catchment (southwest China). Pollution threats to this important water resource have led to the need to evaluate transport pathways and the overall water balance of the catchment. Catchment inputs to the lake include river inflows, direct overland flow and groundwater discharge, which are incorporated into a mathematical model of the system. Surface runoff and groundwater recharge are estimated using a parsimonious soil–vegetation modeling approach, while groundwater flow is based on the MODFLOW-2005 code. Overland flow and stream discharge are coupled to the groundwater regime through the soil layer and are routed through the catchment to account for surface water flow pathways. The model is tested using the V-catchment benchmark problem and is compared to existing models to demonstrate accuracy and capability. Application of the model to the Fuxianhu catchment provides for the first-order approximation of the average catchment water balance, which comprises such components as evapotranspiration losses (37% of rainfall), surface runoff to the lake (37% of rainfall), and groundwater discharge to the lake (8% of rainfall), amongst others. The computationally efficient approach to surface–subsurface modeling adopted in this investigation presents as an alternative to more complex methods, and allows for the rapid assessment of flow pathways at the catchment scale. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009