Use of Groundwater Levels with the PULSE Analytical Model

Abstract

The PULSE analytical model, which calculates daily groundwater discharge on the basis of user-specified recharge, was originally developed for calibration using streamflow data. This article describes a model application in which groundwater level data constitute the primary control on model input. As a test case, data were analyzed from a small basin in central Pennsylvania in which extensive groundwater level data are available. The timing and intensity of daily water-level rises are used to ascertain temporal distribution of recharge, and the simulated groundwater discharge hydrograph has shape features that are similar to the streamflow hydrograph. This article does not include details about calibration, but some steps are illustrated and general procedures are described for calibration in specific hydrologic studies. The PULSE model can be used to assess results of fully automated base flow methods and can be used to define groundwater recharge and discharge at a relatively small time scale.

Hydrogeology and water quality of sand and gravel aquifers in McHenry County, Illinois, 2009–14, and comparison to conditions in 1979

“…The RISE program was used to calculate the daily rise of water levels for the WT fluctuation method (Rutledge and Daniel, 1994;Rutledge, 1998;A.T. Rutledge, U.S. Geological Survey, written commun., 2005;Rutledge, 2014). The program calculates a rise in the water level from a continuous daily hydrograph by recording the amount (in units of length) by which the water level on each day exceeded that of the previous day.…”