Optimal Artificial Recharge in Intermittent Multibasin System

Abstract

Among the various factors that reduce the rate of recharge in an artificial recharge basin with time, the settling of the suspended sediments in the recharge water is usually the most important. An equation is developed to represent the change of infiltration rate of a turbid water with time and with the concentration of suspended sediments. This equation is further generalized to consider the effect of the basin size on the recharge rate. Optimal scheduling of consecutive recharge and dry periods is determined to result in the maximum recharge rate in the long run. A computer model is developed to provide the optimal design of an intermittent multibasin recharge (IMBR) system. The model is run using a set of real field data, and the results show that when a constant flow rate is available during the recharge season, IMBR would be a more efficient system of artificial recharge than either continuous or intermittent recharge on a single basin.