Advancing the Understanding of Hydrologic Connectivity between Kettle Holes and Adjoining Groundwater System using a Hybrid Modelling Approach

• Applicant: Dr.-Ing. Majid Taie Semiromi, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Hydrogeology, Hydrology, Limnology, Urban Water Management, Water Chemistry, Integrated Water Resources Management
• Term: from 2020 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 444707932

The key objective of the envisaged research is to quantify and upscale the flux exchange between the groundwater and kettle holes. To that end, stable isotopes of water (18O and 2H or D) in combination with a fully integrated hydrological model (HydroGeoSphere, HGS) as well as a hybrid machine learning algorithm will be employed. The project attains the objective by taking the following four methodological steps: (1) selecting a recharge, flow-through, and discharge kettle hole type as the pilot kettle holes in the Uckermark region, Germany based on a classification provided by a stable water isotopic signature approach; in addition, the effectiveness of hydrochemistry compositions of the kettle holes and their adjacent groundwater for identification of recharge, flow-through, and discharge kettle hole types will be assessed; (2) constructing and calibrating/validating a high resolution HGS model for a local scale, namely the pilot kettle holes and extracting the flux exchange between the pilot/modelled kettle holes and their adjoining groundwater domain; (3) validating the groundwater inflow estimated using the stable water isotopic signature approach against that of calculated by the HGS model; as a result, a high skill bias correction algorithm will be applied to correct the possible systematic biases reflected in the isotopic approach-derived groundwater inflow; (4) developing meta-models for upscaling the modelled kettle hole-groundwater flux exchange to the unmodeled kettle holes.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Canada, Switzerland, USA
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. Ryan T. Bailey; Professor Dr. Masaki Hayashi; Dr. Ilja van Meerveld, Ph.D.; Dr. Donald Rosenberry, Ph.D.