Kamchia watershed groundwater recharge assessment by the CLM3 model

Estimating groundwater recharge is an important part of the water resources evaluation. In spite of the numerous existing methods it continues to be not easy value to quantify. This is due to its dependence on many meteorological, hydrogeological, soil type and cover conditions and the impossibility for direct measurement. Employment of hydrological models in fact directly calculates the influence of the above cited natural factors. The Community Land Model (CLM3) being loaded with all land featuring data in global scale, including an adequate soil filtration process simulation by the Richards equation, together with the possibility for input of NCEP/NCAR Reanalyses database, featuring the meteorological effect, gives an opportunity to avoid to great extent the difficulties in groundwater (GW) recharge estimation. The paper presents the results from an experiment concerning GW recharge monthly estimation during 2013, worked out for the Kamchia river watershed in Bulgaria. The computed monthly and annual values are presented on GIS maps and are compared with existing assessments made by other methods. It is proved the good approach and the applicability of the method.