Cold frontier in hydrogeology: Interaction of groundwater with alpine streams, frozen soil, and permafrost

水文地质学冷边界：地下水与高山溪流、冻土和永久冻土的相互作用

• 批准号: RGPIN-2014-06062
• 负责人: Hayashi, Masaki
• 金额: $ 3.13万
• 依托单位: University of Calgary
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=612006
• 关键词: Cold; frontier; hydrogeology; Interaction; groundwater

Groundwater is an essential component of the hydrologic cycle. Rain, snowmelt, and glacier melt water are temporarily stored in underground aquifers before they discharge to surface water systems such as rivers, lakes, and wetlands. Groundwater is used extensively for municipal, industrial, and agricultural water supplies in many parts of the world. The reliance of groundwater is expected to intensify in the semi-arid regions of western Canada, where surface water supply is limited. In addition to supplying water to human use, the storage and delayed release of groundwater provides baseflow in streams and serves as a buffer for short- and long-term variability in precipitation inputs. Despite the importance of groundwater, scientific understanding of groundwater processes in cold environments is far less advanced than those in warmer regions. The overall goal of this research program is to advance our understanding of groundwater in cold environments that are strongly influenced by snow, frozen soil, glacier, and permafrost. The research program consists of three projects, each addressing a major gap in existing scientific knowledge; 1) groundwater in alpine regions, 2) groundwater recharge involving infiltration through frozen soil, and 3) interaction of groundwater with permafrost. All three projects have a strong emphasis on the field observation of groundwater processes and the development of mathematical and numerical models that link small-scale processes with large-scale behavior of watersheds. Improved understanding of groundwater processes and numerical tools developed in this study are highly relevant to sustainable water resource management in cold regions. For example, the alpine groundwater study will provide the key information for water supply planning during baseflow periods, which covers 9 to 10 months of the year. Groundwater recharge model developed in Project 2 will be used by the Government of Alberta for water policy development and groundwater extraction license allocation. Understanding of future river flow in discontinuous permafrost basins will be critical for estimating the water availability for future development of oil and gas resources in the discontinuous permafrost regions of the Northwest Territories and northern Alberta and British Columbia.

地下水是水文循环的重要组成部分。雨水、融雪和冰川融水在排放到河流、湖泊和湿地等地表水系统之前暂时储存在地下含水层中。在世界许多地区，地下水被广泛用于市政、工业和农业供水。加拿大西部半干旱地区地表水供应有限，预计对地下水的依赖将会加剧。除了为人类供水之外，地下水的储存和延迟释放还为溪流提供基流，并作为降水输入的短期和长期变化的缓冲区。尽管地下水很重要，但对寒冷环境中地下水过程的科学认识远不如温暖地区先进。该研究计划的总体目标是增进我们对受雪、冻土、冰川和永久冻土强烈影响的寒冷环境中地下水的了解。该研究计划由三个项目组成，每个项目都解决了现有科学知识的重大空白； 1）高山地区的地下水，2）涉及通过冻土渗透的地下水补给，以及3）地下水与永久冻土的相互作用。所有三个项目都非常重视地下水过程的现场观测以及将小规模过程与流域的大规模行为联系起来的数学和数值模型的开发。加深对地下水过程的了解以及本研究开发的数值工具与寒冷地区的可持续水资源管理高度相关。例如，高山地下水研究将为基流期供水规划提供关键信息，基流期涵盖一年中的9至10个月。项目 2 中开发的地下水补给模型将被艾伯塔省政府用于水政策制定和地下水开采许可证分配。了解不连续永久冻土盆地的未来河流流量对于估计西北地区以及艾伯塔省北部和不列颠哥伦比亚省不连续永久冻土地区未来石油和天然气资源开发的可用水量至关重要。