@phdthesis{Barbosa2020, author = {Barbosa, Lu{\´i}s Romero}, title = {Groundwater recharge in tropical wet regions via GIS-based and cosmic-ray neutron sensing}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-46064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-460641}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {XXVI, 175}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Studies on the unsustainable use of groundwater resources are still considered incipient since it is frequently a poorly understood and managed, devalued and inadequately protected natural resource. Groundwater Recharge (GWR) is one of the most challenging elements to estimate since it can rarely be measured directly and cannot easily be derived from existing data. To overcome these limitations, many hydro(geo)logists have combined different approaches to estimate large-scale GWR, namely: remote sensing products, such as IMERG product; Water Budget Equation, also in combination with hydrological models, and; Geographic Information System (GIS), using estimation formulas. For intermediary-scale GWR estimation, there exist: Non-invasive Cosmic-Ray Neutron Sensing (CRNS); wireless networks from local soil probes; and soil hydrological models, such as HYDRUS. Accordingly, this PhD thesis aims, on the one hand, to demonstrate a GIS-based model coupling for estimating the GWR distribution on a large scale in tropical wet basins. On the other hand, it aims to use the time series from CRNS and invasive soil moisture probes to inversely calibrate the soil hydraulic properties, and based on this, estimating the intermediary-scale GWR using a soil hydrological model. For such purpose, two tropical wet basins located in a complex sedimentary aquifer in the coastal Northeast region of Brazil were selected. These are the Jo{\~a}o Pessoa Case Study Area and the Guara{\´i}ra Experimental Basin. Several satellite products in the first area were used as input to the GIS-based water budget equation model for estimating the water balance components and GWR in 2016 and 2017. In addition, the point-scale measurement and CRNS data were used in the second area to determine the soil hydraulic properties, and to estimate the GWR in the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 hydrological years. The resulting values of GWR on large- and intermediary-scale were then compared and validated by the estimates obtained by groundwater table fluctuations. The GWR rates for IMERG- and rain-gauge-based scenarios showed similar coefficients between 68\% and 89\%, similar mean errors between 30\% and 34\%, and slightly-different bias between -13\% and 11\%. The results of GWR rates for soil probes and CRNS soil moisture scenarios ranged from -5.87 to -61.81 cm yr-1, which corresponds to 5\% and 38\% of the precipitation. The calculations of the mean GWR rates on large-scale, based on remote sensing data, and on intermediary-scale, based on CRNS data, held similar results for the Podzol soil type, namely 17.87\% and 17\% of the precipitation. It is then concluded that the proposed methodologies allowed for estimating realistically the GWR over the study areas, which can be a ground-breaking step towards improving the water management and decision-making in the Northeast of Brazil.}, language = {en} }