TY - JOUR
T1 - Coupled surface and subsurface flow modeling of natural hillslopes in the Aburrá Valley (Medellín, Colombia)
AU - Blessent, Daniela
AU - Barco, Janet
AU - Temgoua, André Guy Tranquille
AU - Echeverrri-Ramirez, Oscar
N1 - Funding Information:
This work has been conducted in the context of a research project funded by the Universidad de Medellín (Medellín, Colombia) in collaboration with the company Procenvi Inc. (Quebec, Canada). The authors are grateful for the information about the Pajarito experimental site, the Sistema de Alerta Temprana de Medellín y el Valle de Aburrá (SIATA www.siata.gov.co ), which is a project of the Alcaldía de Medellín and Área Metropolitana del Valle de Aburrá and supported also by Empresas Públicas de Medellín and ISAGEN. We also thank Katherin Cano for conducting the filter paper test to obtain the SWRC in the laboratory of Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Medellín) and Empresa Publica de Medellín for providing rainfall data. Thanks to S.F. Carle for kindly providing the TPROGS code, already used in previous projects.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
PY - 2017/3/1
Y1 - 2017/3/1
N2 - Numerical results are presented of surface-subsurface water modeling of a natural hillslope located in the Aburrá Valley, in the city of Medellín (Antioquia, Colombia). The integrated finite-element hydrogeological simulator HydroGeoSphere is used to conduct transient variably saturated simulations. The objective is to analyze pore-water pressure and saturation variation at shallow depths, as well as volumes of water infiltrated in the porous medium. These aspects are important in the region of study, which is highly affected by soil movements, especially during the high-rain seasons that occur twice a year. The modeling exercise considers rainfall events that occurred between October and December 2014 and a hillslope that is currently monitored because of soil instability problems. Simulation results show that rainfall temporal variability, mesh resolution, coupling length, and the conceptual model chosen to represent the heterogeneous soil, have a noticeable influence on results, particularly for high rainfall intensities. Results also indicate that surface-subsurface coupled modeling is required to avoid unrealistic increase in hydraulic heads when high rainfall intensities cause top-down saturation of soil. This work is a first effort towards fostering hydrogeological modeling expertise that may support the development of monitoring systems and early landslide warning in a country where the rainy season is often the cause of hydrogeological tragedies associated with landslides, mud flow or debris flow.
AB - Numerical results are presented of surface-subsurface water modeling of a natural hillslope located in the Aburrá Valley, in the city of Medellín (Antioquia, Colombia). The integrated finite-element hydrogeological simulator HydroGeoSphere is used to conduct transient variably saturated simulations. The objective is to analyze pore-water pressure and saturation variation at shallow depths, as well as volumes of water infiltrated in the porous medium. These aspects are important in the region of study, which is highly affected by soil movements, especially during the high-rain seasons that occur twice a year. The modeling exercise considers rainfall events that occurred between October and December 2014 and a hillslope that is currently monitored because of soil instability problems. Simulation results show that rainfall temporal variability, mesh resolution, coupling length, and the conceptual model chosen to represent the heterogeneous soil, have a noticeable influence on results, particularly for high rainfall intensities. Results also indicate that surface-subsurface coupled modeling is required to avoid unrealistic increase in hydraulic heads when high rainfall intensities cause top-down saturation of soil. This work is a first effort towards fostering hydrogeological modeling expertise that may support the development of monitoring systems and early landslide warning in a country where the rainy season is often the cause of hydrogeological tragedies associated with landslides, mud flow or debris flow.
KW - Colombia
KW - Groundwater/surface-water relations
KW - Natural hillslopes
KW - Numerical modeling
KW - Tropical climate
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84991806455&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10040-016-1482-z
DO - 10.1007/s10040-016-1482-z
M3 - Artículo
AN - SCOPUS:84991806455
SN - 1431-2174
VL - 25
SP - 331
EP - 345
JO - Hydrogeology Journal
JF - Hydrogeology Journal
IS - 2
ER -