Some limitations in using 222Rn to assess river–groundwater interactions: the case of Castel di Sangro alluvial plain (central Italy)

Stellato, Luisa; Petrella, Emma; Terrasi, F.; Belloni, P.; Belli, M.; Sansone, U.; Celico, Fulvio

doi:10.1007/s10040-007-0263-0

Cited by 44 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Firstly, as degassing involves diffusion of 222 Rn through the boundary layer at the river surface, the stagnant film model yields a gas transfer velocity as D/z (which is closely related to k), where z is the thickness of the boundary layer at the water surface (Ellins et al, 1990;Stellato et al, 2008). z and by extension D/z can be calculated from differences in river 222 Rn concentrations in losing reaches.…”

Section: Radon Mass Balancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…(5) using the mean γ value of 2300 Bq m −3 day −1 (Table 2), a porosity of 0.4 (which is appropriate for coarsegrained unconsolidated sediments), and a value for c in that is the 222 Rn activity of the river in that reach. The residence time of water within the hyporheic zone is likely to be short (Boulton et al, 1998;Tonina and Buffington, 2011;Zarnetske et al, 2011;Cartwright et al, 2014), and t h = 0.1 days is assumed here; for t h < 1 day, F h is relatively insensitive to the actual residence times in the hyporheic zone (Lamontagne and Cook, 2007;Cartwright et al, 2014). The width of the hyporheic zone has been assigned as the river width.…”

Section: Quantifying Groundwater Inflowsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Tracers such as major ions, stable isotopes, radioactive isotopes, and chlorofluorocarbons have been used to quantify groundwater inflows to rivers (e.g. Ellins et al, 1990;Genereux and Hemond, 1992;Négrel et al, 2001;Stellato et al, 2008;Cartwright et al, 2011Cartwright et al, , 2014Cook, 2013;Bourke et al, 2014a, b). Geochemical tracers only quantify groundwater inflows, and while they are commonly used to determine the distribution of gaining and losing reaches, they do not quantify the magnitude of any groundwater outflows.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Using radon to understand parafluvial flows and the changing locations of groundwater inflows in the Avon River, southeast Australia

Cartwright

Hofmann

2016

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Understanding the location and magnitude of groundwater inflows to rivers is important for the protection of riverine ecosystems and the management of connected groundwater and surface water systems. This study utilizes 222 Rn activities and Cl concentrations in the Avon River, southeast Australia, to determine the distribution of groundwater inflows and to understand the importance of parafluvial flow on the 222 Rn budget. The distribution of 222 Rn activities and Cl concentrations implies that the Avon River contains alternating gaining and losing reaches. The location of groundwater inflows changed as a result of major floods in 2011-2013 that caused significant movement of the floodplain sediments. The floodplain of the Avon River comprises unconsolidated coarse-grained sediments with numerous point bars and sediment banks through which significant parafluvial flow is likely. The 222 Rn activities in the Avon River, which are locally up to 3690 Bq m −3 , result from a combination of groundwater inflows and the input of water from the parafluvial zone that has high 222 Rn activities due to 222 Rn emanation from the alluvial sediments. If the high 222 Rn activities were ascribed solely to groundwater inflows, the calculated net groundwater inflows would exceed the measured increase in streamflow along the river by up to 490 % at low streamflows. Uncertainties in the 222 Rn activities of groundwater, the gas transfer coefficient, and the degree of hyporheic exchange cannot explain a discrepancy of this magnitude. The proposed model of parafluvial flow envisages that water enters the alluvial sediments in reaches where the river is losing and subsequently re-enters the river in the gaining reaches with flow paths of tens to hundreds of metres. Parafluvial flow is likely to be important in rivers with coarse-grained alluvial sediments on their floodplains and failure to quantify the input of 222 Rn from parafluvial flow will result in overestimating groundwater inflows to rivers.

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Section: Radon Mass Balancementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Quantifying Groundwater Inflowsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Using radon to understand parafluvial flows and the changing locations of groundwater inflows in the Avon River, southeast Australia

Cartwright

Hofmann

2016

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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“…Geochemical tracers including major ions, stable isotopes and radiogenic isotopes have been used to estimate groundwater fluxes in gaining rivers (Cartwright et al, 2008(Cartwright et al, , 2010Cook, 2012;Cook et al, 2003Cook et al, , 2006Durand et al, 1993;Genereux et al, 1993;Genereux and Hemond, 1990;Lamontagne et al, 2005Lamontagne et al, , 2008Lamontagne and Cook, 2007;Mullinger et al, 2007Mullinger et al, , 2009Négrel et al, 2003;Rhode, 1981;Ribolzi et al, 2000;Stellato et al, 2008). The utility of each of these tracers depends on a variety of factors including the difference between the concentration of the tracer in groundwater compared to surface water, its spatial and temporal variability, the accurate characterisation of its sources and sinks, and the potential for it to change by processes such as evaporation, precipitation, radioactive decay, degassing, or biogeochemical reactions.…”

Section: N P Unland Et Al: Investigating the Spatio-temporal Variamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Constraining the interaction between groundwater and rivers is important for calculating water balances and sustainable levels of water extraction (Tsur and Graham-Tomasi, 1991), maintaining healthy river ecology (Boulton, 1993;Krause et al, 2007;Lambs, 2004), understanding biogeochemical reactions at the groundwater-surface water interface (Peyrard et al, 2011;Sophocleous, 2002;Woessner, 2000) and determining the source and fluxes of nutrients and solutes carried by rivers. In order to estimate groundwater discharge to rivers and to define gaining and losing reaches, a number of physical, chemical and numerical methods have been developed (Kalbus et al, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating the spatio-temporal variability in groundwater and surface water interactions: a multi-technique approach

Unland

Cartwright

Andersen

et al. 2013

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. The interaction between groundwater and surface water along the Tambo and Nicholson rivers, southeast Australia, was investigated using 222 Rn, Cl, differential flow gauging, head gradients, electrical conductivity (EC) and temperature profiles. Head gradients, temperature profiles, Cl concentrations and 222 Rn activities all indicate higher groundwater fluxes to the Tambo River in areas of increased topographic variation where the potential to form large groundwater-surface water gradients is greater. Groundwater discharge to the Tambo River calculated by Cl mass balance was significantly lower (1.48 × 10 4 to 1.41 × 10 3 m 3 day −1 ) than discharge estimated by 222 Rn mass balance (5.35 × 10 5 to 9.56 × 10 3 m 3 day −1 ) and differential flow gauging (5.41 × 10 5 to 6.30 × 10 3 m 3 day −1 ) due to bank return waters. While groundwater sampling from the bank of the Tambo River was intended to account for changes in groundwater chemistry associated with bank infiltration, variations in bank infiltration between sample sites remain unaccounted for, limiting the use of Cl as an effective tracer. Groundwater discharge to both the Tambo and Nicholson rivers was the highest under high-flow conditions in the days to weeks following significant rainfall, indicating that the rivers are well connected to a groundwater system that is responsive to rainfall. Groundwater constituted the lowest proportion of river discharge during times of increased rainfall that followed dry periods, while groundwater constituted the highest proportion of river discharge under baseflow conditions (21.4 % of the Tambo in April 2010 and 18.9 % of the Nicholson in September 2010).

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A multi-tracer approach to quantifying groundwater inflows to an upland river; assessing the influence of variable groundwater chemistry

et al. 2013

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Understanding the behaviour and variability of environmental tracers is important for their use in estimating groundwater discharge to rivers. This study utilizes a multi‐tracer approach to quantify groundwater discharge into a 27 km upland reach of the Gellibrand River in southwest Victoria, Australia. Ten sampling campaigns were conducted between March 2011 and June 2012, and the distribution of 222Rn activities, Cl and 3H concentrations imply the river receives substantial groundwater inflows. Mass balances based on 222Rn, Cl and 3H yield estimates of groundwater inflows that agree to within ± 12%, with cumulative inflows in individual campaigns ranging from 24 346 to 88 467 m3/day along the studied river section. Groundwater discharge accounts for between 10 and 50% of river flow dependent on the time of year, with a high proportion (>40 %) of groundwater sustaining summer flows. Groundwater inflow is largely governed by regional groundwater flowpaths; between 50 and 90% of total groundwater inflows occur along a narrow 5–10 km section where the river intersects the Eastern View Formation, a major regional aquifer. Groundwater 222Rn activities over the 16 month period were spatially heterogeneous across the catchment, ranging between 2000 Bq/m3 and 16 175 Bq/m3. Although groundwater 222Rn activities display temporal variation, spatial variation in groundwater 222Rn is a key control on 222Rn mass balances in river catchments where groundwater and river 222Rn activities are within an order of magnitude of each other. Calculated groundwater discharges vary from 8.4 to 15 m3/m/day when groundwater 222Rn activities are varied by ± 1 σ. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Some limitations in using 222Rn to assess river–groundwater interactions: the case of Castel di Sangro alluvial plain (central Italy)

Cited by 44 publications

References 19 publications

Using radon to understand parafluvial flows and the changing locations of groundwater inflows in the Avon River, southeast Australia

Using radon to understand parafluvial flows and the changing locations of groundwater inflows in the Avon River, southeast Australia

Investigating the spatio-temporal variability in groundwater and surface water interactions: a multi-technique approach

A multi-tracer approach to quantifying groundwater inflows to an upland river; assessing the influence of variable groundwater chemistry

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