Past and future drivers of surface water-groundwater interactions in the Kansas River Alluvial Aquifer

Abstract:

Rivers and hydraulically-connected alluvial aquifers provide an essential water resource, for both humans and ecosystems, but in many settings are threatened by urbanization and environmental stressors. In the future, climate change will amplify the frequency of extreme events like droughts and flooding. In this undergraduate thesis, we investigate how climatic and anthropogenic factors affect interconnected groundwater and surface water resources along the Kansas River near Lawrence, Kansas. We integrate stream gage data, long-term groundwater levels from multiple wells, meteorological information, and water use data to understand how human activities affect groundwater-surface water interactions and how this might change in the future. Using time series analysis, we examine the impact of precipitation and temperature extremes, seasonal climate variability, and groundwater pumping on water levels in wells. Examining such factors helps to characterize groundwater-surface water interactions in the Kansas River alluvial aquifer and understand how these resources may change in future scenarios. Our data set is unique in its longevity from 1952 to present, and time series analysis allows for an efficient study of the response of interconnected groundwater and surface water resources on daily, seasonal, annual and decadal scales.