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Summary: A distributed non-uniform routing model was constructed and applied to two stream networks in southern Sweden to investigate the effects of stage, topology and morphology on advective travel times within the stream networks. Using particle-tracking, we found markedly non-linear relationships between travel time distributions and discharge for both catchments under a range of hydraulic conditions, represented by discharges comprising percentiles between 30 and 99.9 extracted from the discharge data set for the two catchments in this study. The travel time distributions from the particle tracking were used to numerically parameterise the response function of a lumped hydrological model, which resulted in improvements, particularly in the prediction of high flows. A sensitivity analysis was performed on the routing procedure, particularly regarding the choice of Manning’s friction coefficient and the choice of generic cross-sectional areas along the two stream networks showing that the uncertainty in routing parameters did not have a major effect on the final hydrograph. The new parameterisation performed better than the conventional model in every modelled case. A theoretical demonstration shows that correct descriptions of streamflow processes becomes more important with increased watershed scale, because the travel time within the stream network relative to the travel time on hillslopes increases with the watershed scale. The topology and topography of the stream network were shown to be the major factors influencing the network averaged travel time. These results demonstrate that physically based response functions (and model parameters) can be superior to compartmental model parameters that are based on numerical calibration and that are extrapolated to account for conditions during hydrological extremes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An approach is described for hydrological, geochemical, and ecological process modeling in assessing the migration pathways of radionuclides from a repository for radioactive waste in crystalline bedrock back to the surface environment where dose to individual humans can occur. The approach is based on the characterization residence times in geologic media of a unit pulse of 135Cs released from the repository. Performance assessment modeling of geosphere transport processes generally focuses on the properties of the host rock (crystalline bedrock in this case). Our approach includes a detailed representation of the quaternary deposits that overlie the bedrock. Although water residence times in quaternary deposits can be short, geochemical reactions, predominantly sorption, can increase solute residence times significantly. Moreover, the quaternary deposits govern the pathways to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and are of utmost importance for the assessment of doses to individual humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the transport of sorbing solutes by extending the advective storage path model developed for longitudinal transport of inert solutes in streams coupled with flow-induced uptake in the hyporheic zone. Independent observations of a conservative (³H) and a reactive (51Cr) tracer in both the stream water and the hyporheic zone were used to differentiate between hydraulic and sorption processes. The method of temporal moments was found to be inadequate for parameter determination, whereas fitting versus the entire tracer breakthrough curves with special emphasis on the tail indicates that the proposed model could be used to represent both conservative and reactive transport. Information on the tracer inventory of the conservative tracer in the hyporheic zone was found to be of vital importance to the evaluation of the hydraulic exchange. A model evaluation based on stream water data alone can yield predictions of a wash-out in the hyporheic zone that deviates markedly from the observed wash-out. This prohibits long-term predictions of the wash-out from the hyporheic zone as well as the evaluation of sorption properties. The sorption in the hyporheic zone was found to follow a two-step model, where the first step is instantaneous and the second kinetic. A model with a single-step sorption process could not reproduce the observed breakthrough curves. An evaluation of the relative importance of including sorption kinetics in solute stream transport models is elucidated by means of the analytical expressions for the temporal moments. The omission of the kinetics in the second sorption step in the hyporheic zone will result in relative errors in the moments of second order or higher. The error will increase with decreasing residence time in the hyporheic zone. Especially, long-term predictions of the wash-out from the hyporheic zone require consideration of the rate-limited sorption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]