Figure 3 of the original article contained some omissions and errors. The corrected Fig. 3b and c are given here.

The feasibility of a hydrogeological modeling approach to simulate several thousand shallow groundwater-fed lakes and wetlands without explicitly considering their connection with groundwater is investigated at the regional scale (~40,000 km²) through an application in the semi-arid Nebraska Sand Hills (NSH), USA. Hydraulic heads are compared to local land-surface elevations from a digital elevation model (DEM) within a geographic information system to assess locations of lakes and wetlands. The water bodies are inferred where hydraulic heads exceed, or are above a certain depth below, the land surface. Numbers of lakes and/or wetlands are determined via image cluster analysis applied to the same 30-m grid as the DEM after interpolating both simulated and estimated heads. The regional water-table map was used for groundwater model calibration, considering MODIS-based net groundwater recharge data. Resulting values of simulated total baseflow to interior streams are within 1% of observed values. Locations, areas, and numbers of simulated lakes and wetlands are compared with Landsat 2005 survey data and with areas of lakes from a 1979–1980 Landsat survey and the National Hydrography Dataset. This simplified process-based modeling approach avoids the need for field-based morphology or water-budget data from individual lakes or wetlands, or determination of lake-groundwater exchanges, yet it reproduces observed lake-wetland characteristics at regional groundwater management scales. A better understanding of the NSH hydrogeology is attained, and the approach shows promise for use in simulations of groundwater-fed lake and wetland characteristics in other large groundwater systems.

Previous watershed assessments have relied on annual baseflow to evaluate the groundwater contribution to streams. To quantify the volume of groundwater in storage, additional information such as groundwater mean transit time (MTT) is needed. This study determined the groundwater MTT in the West Fork Duchesne watershed in Utah (USA) with lumped-parameter modeling of environmental tracers (SF₆, CFCs, and ³H/³He) from 21 springs. Approximately 30% of the springs exhibited an exponential transit time distribution (TTD); the remaining ~70% were best characterized by a piston-flow TTD. The flow-weighted groundwater MTT for the West Fork watershed is about 40 years with approximately 20 years in the unsaturated zone. A cumulative distribution of these ages revealed that most of the groundwater is between 30 and 50 years old, suggesting that declining recharge associated with 5–10-year droughts is less likely to have a profound effect on this watershed compared with systems with shorter MTTs. The estimated annual baseflow of West Fork stream flow based on chemical hydrograph separation is ~1.7 × 10⁷ m³/year, a proxy for groundwater discharge. Using both MTT and groundwater discharge, the volume of mobile groundwater stored in the watershed was calculated to be ~6.5 × 10⁸ m³, or ~20 m thickness of active groundwater storage and recharge of ~0.09 m/year (assuming porosity = 15%). Future watershed-scale assessments should evaluate groundwater MTT, in addition to annual baseflow, to quantify groundwater storage and more accurately assess watershed susceptibility to drought, groundwater extraction, and land-use change.

Poyang Lake is the largest freshwater lake in China and is well known for its ecological and economic importance. Understanding the contribution of groundwater to Poyang Lake is important for the lake’s protection and management. In this study, stable isotopes (δD and δ¹⁸O), ²²²Rn measurements, and corresponding models (²²²Rn and ¹⁸O mass balance models) were employed to evaluate the groundwater discharge and associated chemical inputs to Poyang Lake. The results showed that the distribution of δ¹⁸O in the lake water reflects the groundwater discharge into the lake. The groundwater discharge estimated using the ²²²Rn mass balance model was in reasonable agreement with the groundwater discharge derived from the ¹⁸O mass balance model. The ²²²Rn mass balance model showed that the groundwater discharge rate was 24.18 ± 6.85 mm/d with a groundwater discharge flux of (2.24 ± 0.63) × 10⁷ m³/d, which accounts for 6.52–11.14% of river-water input in the Poyang Lake area. The groundwater discharge flux estimated using the ¹⁸O mass balance model was 3.17 × 10⁷ m³/d, and the average groundwater discharge rate was 26.62 mm/d. The estimated groundwater discharge was used to estimate the associated chemical fluxes. It was found that groundwater-derived heavy metals such as iron and manganese are potential threats to the lake ecological system because of their large inputs from groundwater discharge.

The spatial and temporal distribution of redox zones in an aquifer is important when designing groundwater supply systems. Redox zonation can have direct or indirect control of the biological and chemical reactions and mobility of pollutants. In this study, redox conditions are characterized by interpreting the hydrogeological conditions and water chemistry in groundwater during bank infiltration at a site in Shenyang, northeast China. The relevant redox processes and zonal differences in a shallow flow path and deeper flow path at the field scale were revealed by monitoring the redox parameters and chemistry of groundwater near the Liao River. The results show obvious horizontal and vertical components of redox zones during bank filtration. Variations in the horizontal extent of the redox zone were controlled by the different permeabilities of the riverbed sediments and aquifer with depth. Horizontally, the redox zone was situated within 17 m of the riverbank for the shallow flow path and within 200 m for the deep flow path. The vertical extent of the redox zone was affected by precipitation and seasonal river floods and extended to 10 m below the surface. During bank filtration, iron and manganese oxides or hydroxides were reductively dissolved, and arsenic that was adsorbed onto the medium surface or coprecipitated is released into the groundwater. This leads to increased arsenic content in groundwater, which poses a serious threat to water supply security.

The Sone River megafan in the Marginal Alluvial Plain (MAP) in the southern parts of the Ganga Basin (India) holds potential aquifer systems within a hydrogeologically poor region with limited groundwater potential. The work investigates the hydrostratigraphy and hydrogeological characteristics, including the yield potential and hydraulic parameters of the aquifer systems in the megafan, by analyzing borehole lithologs (n = 78), drill-cut sediment (n = 5), depth to water level (n = 112) and pumping test data (n = 19). The aquifer materials comprise oxidized and brownish-yellow fine to very coarse sand and gravels (mean size range 0.21–1.34 mm), constituting ~10–90% of the sedimentary column within the depth of 250 m below ground level (bgl). Two aquifer systems are delineated within the depth, marked by a middle clay layer lying at 87–139 m bgl. The phreatic aquifer within the top aquitard depicts shallow water levels, which varied between 0.6 and 12.0 m bgl. The discharge in the tube wells tapping the second aquifer system varies between ~46 and 250 m³/h. The transmissivity values were estimated up to 23,696 m²/d (generally 5,000–10,000 m²/d). The storativity values (range 2.6 × 10⁻⁹ to 5.0 × 10⁻³) indicate a confined state of groundwater in the aquifer system. The hydraulic conductivity values of 21–369 and 31–196 m/d, as estimated by a grain-size based empirical method, suggest high groundwater potential of both the first and second aquifer systems, respectively. The groundwater source availability in the megafan is supported by copious supply of source water where the palaeochannels act as conduits of recharge.

Epigenic karst systems exhibit strong connectivity to surface recharge. In land use dominated by extensive agriculture and farming, epigenic karst aquifers are highly vulnerable to surface contaminants from point and nonpoint sources. Currently, the karstic landscapes of the southeastern Kentucky platform (USA) are impacted by agriculture and the rapid proliferation of concentrated-animal-feeding operations. Analysis of karst aquifer responses to storm events provides qualitative information regarding aquifer–recharge flow paths and groundwater residence time, and knowledge of spatial and temporal variations in recharge and flow is crucial to the understanding of the fate of surface contaminants. Time-series correlation analyses on long-term physicochemical data recorded at the outlet of Grayson Gunnar Cave, an epigenic karst system located along the Cumberland escarpment in southeastern Kentucky, revealed the existence of two separate conduit branches responding 4–8 h apart from each other. Recorded storm response times range from 4 h for flushing and dilution to 7 h for recovery. An estimated 6 million L of stored groundwater is discharged from both branches during major storms, and the fastest responding branch accounts for the majority (80%) of the groundwater reserve being discharged through the spring. As evidenced by groundwater residence time (7 days), recharge is likely characterized by localized infiltration of rain water from subsurface sinkholes to the conduit branches with no contribution of regional or lateral groundwater flow.

Explicit expressions for the vector fields of specific discharge and scalar fields of stream functions and piezometric heads in a Darcian steady-state essentially two-dimensional (2-D) flow through a three-component composite representing a vertical or horizontal well with a gravel pack and annular skin are obtained and analysed. The refraction conditions along two concentric circles, which represent interfaces between three porous media of contrasting hydraulic conductivities, are exactly satisfied. Flow nets, isotachs, the locus of the stagnation point bounding the capture zone of the well, and functionals quantifying area-averaged hydraulic characteristics are found. The flow topology and drawdowns near the well illustrate that at small pumping rates a common concept of a purely radial 1-D flow can be superficially plausible but misleading.

The extent of denitrification in a small agricultural area near a river in Yangpyeong, South Korea, was determined using multiple isotopes, groundwater age, and physicochemical data for groundwater. The shallow groundwater at one monitoring site had high concentrations of NO₃-N (74–83 mg L⁻¹). The δ¹⁵N-NO₃ values for groundwater in the study area ranged between +9.1 and +24.6‰ in June 2014 and +12.2 to +21.6‰ in October 2014. High δ¹⁵N-NO₃ values (+10.7 to +12.5‰) in both sampling periods indicated that the high concentrations of nitrate in the groundwater originated from application of organic fertilizers and manure. In the northern part of the study area, some groundwater samples showed elevated δ¹⁵N-NO₃ and δ¹⁸O-NO₃ values, which suggest that nitrate was removed from the groundwater via denitrification, with N isotope enrichment factors ranging between −4.8 and −7.9‰ and O isotope enrichment factors varying between −3.8 and −4.9‰. Similar δD and δ¹⁸O values of the surface water and groundwater in the south appear to indicate that groundwater in that area was affected by surface-water infiltration. The mean residence times (MRTs) of groundwater showed younger ages in the south (10–20 years) than in the north (20–30 years). Hence, it was concluded that denitrification processes under anaerobic conditions with longer groundwater MRT in the northern part of the study area removed considerable amounts of nitrate. This study demonstrates that multi-isotope data combined with physicochemical data and age-dating information can be effectively applied to characterize nitrate contaminant sources and attenuation processes.