Determination of spatially and temporally highly detailed groundwater recharge in porous aquifers by a SVAT model

An extended version of the SVAT model TRAIN is used to model groundwater re charge grid based (500 x 500 m) on a daily time step for porous aquifers wi thout lateral flow components. The conceptual soil model of the HBV rainfal l runoff model was integrated into the SVAT model. One empirical soil param eter was calibrated on measured percolation of 20 lysimeters in Baden-Wurtt emberg, one of the federal states in the south-west of Germany. The model p roved suitable to simulate monthly percolation (groundwater recharge) under very different conditions. After the calibration of the model at the point sites the model was applied to a study area. The study area is part of an extensive porous aquifer in the Upper Rhine Valley. The nature of the conceptual soil model allows an e asy parameterisation from digital soil data sets of the scale 1.200 000 tog ether with land use data. Different land uses are modelled separately withi n each pixel. The model can provide monthly groundwater recharge as input d ata for groundwater modelling as well as long term groundwater recharge, as a basis for sustainable management of groundwater resources. (C) 2001 Else vier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.