The amount of groundwater recharge by channel infiltration is estimated for
El Barbon basin, in Baja California, Mexico. The basin's lower portion inc
ludes the valleys of Ojos Negros and Real del Castillo Viejo, which are cro
ssed by several ephemeral washes, including the mainstem El Barbon Wash. A
distributed catchment model with the capability for nonlinear channel routi
ng and channel abstraction is used to calculate groundwater recharge by cha
nnel infiltration for storm events of 2-, 5-, 10-, 25-, 50-, and 100-yr ret
urn period. The results confirm that event channel infiltration can be a su
bstantial component of the vertical recharge. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V
. All rights reserved.