TY - JOUR A1 - Fahle, Marcus A1 - Dietrich, Ottfried T1 - Estimation of evapotranspiration using diurnal groundwater level fluctuations: Comparison of different approaches with groundwater lysimeter data JF - Water resources research N2 - In wetlands or riparian areas, water withdrawal by plants with access to groundwater or the capillary fringe often causes diurnal groundwater fluctuations. Various approaches use the characteristics of these fluctuations for estimation of daily groundwater evapotranspiration rates. The objective of this paper was to review the available methods, compare them with measured evapotranspiration and assess their recharge assumptions. For this purpose, we employed data of 85 rain-free days of a weighable groundwater lysimeter situated at a grassland site in the Spreewald wetland in north-east Germany. Measurements of hourly recharge and daily evapotranspiration rates were used to assess the different approaches. Our results showed that a maximum of 50% of the day to day variance of the daily evapotranspiration rates could be explained by the approaches based on groundwater fluctuations. Simple and more complex methods performed similarly. For some of the approaches, there were indications that erroneous assumptions compensated each other (e.g., when overestimated recharge counteracted underestimated storage change). We found that the usage of longer time spans resulted in improved estimates of the daily recharge rates and that the estimates were further enhanced by including two night averages. When derived from fitting estimates of recharge or evapotranspiration with according measurements the specific yield, needed to convert changes in water level to water volumes, differed considerably among the methods (from 0.022 to 0.064). Thus, the specific yield can be seen as correction factor that compensates for inadequate process descriptions. KW - evapotranspiration KW - groundwater lysimeter KW - specific yield KW - diurnal signal KW - phreatophytes KW - wetland Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/2013WR014472 SN - 0043-1397 SN - 1944-7973 VL - 50 IS - 1 SP - 273 EP - 286 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER - TY - GEN A1 - Dietrich, Ottfried A1 - Schweigert, Susanne A1 - Steidl, Jörg A1 - Lischeid, Gunnar T1 - Effects of data and model simplification on the results of a wetland water resource management model T2 - Water N2 - This paper presents the development of a wetland water balance model for use in a large river basin with many different wetlands. The basic model was primarily developed for a single wetland with a complex water management system involving large amounts of specialized input data and water management details. The aim was to simplify the model structure and to use only commonly available data as input for the model, with the least possible loss of accuracy. Results from different variants of the model and data adaptation were tested against results from a detailed model. This shows that using commonly available data and unifying and simplifying the input data is tolerable up to a certain level. The simplification of the model has greater effects on the evaluated water balance components than the data adaptation. Because this simplification was necessary for large-scale use, we suggest that, for reasons of comparability, simpler models should always be applied with uniform data bases for large regions, though these should only be moderately simplified. Further, we recommend using these simplified models only for large-scale comparisons and using more specific, detailed models for investigations on smaller scales. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 442 KW - wetland KW - water balance KW - water balance model KW - evapotranspiration KW - groundwater level Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-407579 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dietrich, Ottfried A1 - Schweigert, Susanne A1 - Steidl, Jörg A1 - Lischeid, Gunnar T1 - Effects of Data and Model Simplification on the Results of a Wetland Water Resource Management Model JF - Water N2 - This paper presents the development of a wetland water balance model for use in a large river basin with many different wetlands. The basic model was primarily developed for a single wetland with a complex water management system involving large amounts of specialized input data and water management details. The aim was to simplify the model structure and to use only commonly available data as input for the model, with the least possible loss of accuracy. Results from different variants of the model and data adaptation were tested against results from a detailed model. This shows that using commonly available data and unifying and simplifying the input data is tolerable up to a certain level. The simplification of the model has greater effects on the evaluated water balance components than the data adaptation. Because this simplification was necessary for large-scale use, we suggest that, for reasons of comparability, simpler models should always be applied with uniform data bases for large regions, though these should only be moderately simplified. Further, we recommend using these simplified models only for large-scale comparisons and using more specific, detailed models for investigations on smaller scales. KW - wetland KW - water balance KW - water balance model KW - evapotranspiration KW - groundwater level Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/w8060252 SN - 2073-4441 VL - 8 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dietrich, Ottfried A1 - Fahle, Marcus A1 - Seyfarth, Manfred T1 - Behavior of water balance components at sites with shallow groundwater tables: Possibilities and limitations of their simulation using different ways to control weighable groundwater lysimeters JF - Agricultural water management : an international journal N2 - The water cycle of sites with shallow groundwater tables is characterized by complex interactions of hydrological and ecological processes. The water balance components, which are subject to diurnal fluctuations, are best measured with groundwater lysimeters. However, the lower boundary condition of such lysimeters affects most of the hydrological variables, particularly when considering short time scales, and has to be defined in such a way as to facilitate realistic simulations. In this paper, different means of controlling the lower boundary condition of groundwater lysimeters were compared with respect to their ability to simulate the behavior of the water balance components properly. Measurements of rain-free periods from a lysimeter station installed in the Spreewald wetland in north-east Germany were evaluated. The most common groundwater lysimeter type is controlled using a Mariotte bottle and sets the groundwater level in the soil monolith to a constant level, which here caused an alteration of the inflow to the lysimeter, with respect to both its value and diurnal behavior. Still, daily evapotranspiration values were realistic and this simple and robust approach may be used for time intervals not shorter than one day. High-resolution measurements can be gained from lysimeters that automatically adjust the groundwater level by a system of pumps and valves on an hourly basis. Still, reliable results were only obtained when the conditions in the lysimeter and the surrounding field, where the target groundwater level was measured, were in accordance. Otherwise (e.g., when the groundwater level differed) an unrealistic inflow behavior evolved. Reasonable results, even for slightly diverging conditions, were gained with a new approach that defined the lower boundary conditions by controlling the inflows and outflows of the lysimeter. This approach further enabled the groundwater level itself to be the study subject, thereby enlarging the field of possible applications of groundwater lysimeters. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. KW - Diurnal fluctuations KW - Evapotranspiration KW - Water storage KW - Inflow and outflow KW - Lysimeter control systems KW - Spreewald wetland Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2015.09.005 SN - 0378-3774 SN - 1873-2283 VL - 163 SP - 75 EP - 89 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER -