HR: 1340h
AN: H13D-0456    [Abstracts]
TI: The Flooding-drying Cycle in Rain-fed Seasonal Meadows, Central California
AU: * Loaiciga, H A
EM: hugo@geog.ucsb.edu
AF: Dept.Geography/UCSB, Dept. Geography/UCSB, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4060 United States
AU: Huang, A
EM: ahuang@bren.ucsb.edu
AF: School of Environmental Science, School of Environmental Science/UCSB, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 United States
AB: Abstract. This paper presents a methodology to calculate the infiltration and ponding hydrographs in rain-fed wetlands with negligible overland drainage. The flooding cycle is made up of at most three phases. In the first, the rainfall rate equals the infiltration rate and there is no ponding. The second phase begins with the initiation of ponding and ends with the end of rainfall or of ponding, whichever comes first. The third, and last, phase, starts with the end of rainfall -provided that there is ponded water still extant- and ends with the extinction of ponding. The ponding and infiltration hydrographs are calculated by solving ordinary differential equations of water balance and soil-water flow. Two variables of special interest are the maximum ponding depth and the duration of ponding, which are valuable for assessing flooding potential and ecological functioning. Several computational examples quantify the infiltration and ponding hydrographs in seasonal meadows -underlain by soils with a wide range of hydraulic properties- using design storms with realistic flooding potential. The computational examples are supported with field-derived soil properties.
DE: 1836 Hydrologic budget (1655)
DE: 1854 Precipitation (3354)
DE: 1866 Soil moisture
DE: 1890 Wetlands
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting