Automated Base Flow Separation and Recession Analysis Techniques

Abstract

An automated base flow separation technique has been developed and tested. Base flow is considered to be the ground‐water contribution to stream flow. Estimates of the amount of base flow can be derived from stream flow records. Such estimates are critical in the assessment of low flow characteristics of streams for use in water supply, water management, and pollution assessment. An automated base flow separation technique using a digital filter has been tested against three other automated techniques and manual separation methods. The filter appears to be comparable to other automated techniques in its ability to reproduce the results produced from graphical separation techiques. The filter technique is easy to use and has the added advantage in that it can be adjusted by the user to take into account personnel preferences in separation of stream flow into surface flow and base flow. The slope of the base flow recession has been used to estimate the volume of water in storage in the basin above the level of the stream channel, the amount of recharge to the shallow aquifer, and as an input into water budget models. A second automated technique was developed to calculate the slope of the base flow recession curve from stream flow record. This technique is an adaptation of the Master Recession Curve procedure. The results of this method were compared to manual estimates with an efficiency of 74 percent.