Separation of base flow in upper part of the Lebrija river basin

Abstract

To make separation of base flow in the upper part of Lebrija River basin, we developed and applied physical concepts such as mass balance equation with natural tracers called stable isotopes of water and numerical algorithms based on stream flow recession from time series. These algorithms uses parameters hat have physical meaning in the recession of the rivers and may represent behaviours non lineal in groundwater storage. Sampling of stable isotopes in rainwater, as in groundwater and rivers were made, taking into account the response of the components of hydrograph in several scales, seasonal and spatial. The analysis resulting from the recession parameters and equation for the mass balance equation validated the existence of aquifer systems in contact with the main river. The results obtained allow proposing a significative value for base flow in the Lebrija basin.

Keywords

• stable isotopes
• mass balance equation
• stream flow recession
• aquifers
• base flow