Form Approved
REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE
OMB No. 0704-0188
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1. AGENCY USE ONLY (Leave blank)
2. REPORT DATE
3. REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED
July 1995
4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE
5. FUNDING NUMBERS
The Winter Low-Flow Balance of the Semiarid White River, Nebraska and
South Dakota
6. AUTHORS
Michael G. Ferrick, Nathan D. Mulherin and Darryl J. Calkins
7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES)
8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION
REPORT NUMBER
U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory
72 Lyme Road
CRREL Report 95-15
Hanover, New Hampshire 03755-1290
9. SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES)
10. SPONSORING/MONITORING
AGENCY REPORT NUMBER
Office of the Chief of Engineers
Washington, D.C. 20314-1000
11. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES
12a. DISTRIBUTION/AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
12b. DISTRIBUTION CODE
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
Available from NTIS, Springfield, Virginia 22161
13. ABSTRACT (Maximum 200 words)
Low-flow studies are needed to quantify the effects of water consumption on stream flow, water quality,
groundwater resources, and contaminant transport. The low-flow water balance of a river in a cold region is
simplified in winter because evapotranspiration is negligible, irrigation water withdrawals and diversions are
halted, and precipitation occurs largely as snow, minimizing the spatial and temporal variability of runoff. We
investigated the monthly low-flow water balance of White River (Neb. and S. Dak.) reaches over seven consecu-
tive winters. Water going into or out of storage as ice or melt, obtained with an air temperature index model, can
be a dominant component of the water balance. The point estimate method is used to account for parameter
uncertainty and variability, providing the mean, variance, and limits of dependent variables such as water
storage as ice and inflow from a subbasin. Negative surface water yield from several-thousand-square-kilometer
subbasins occurred regularly through the period, indicating a significant flow from the river to the alluvial
aquifers. The winter water balance results suggest either a perched river or a coupled surface watergroundwa-
ter hydrologic system in particular subbasins, consistent with the field investigations of Rothrock (1942). The
winter flow exchange between the surface and subsurface can be used to estimate the annual exchange for both
hydrologic conditions.
14. SUBJECT TERMS
15. NUMBER OF PAGES
Semiarid basin
31
Low flow
Point estimate method
Streamflow
16. PRICE CODE
Perched river
River ice growth
Winter water balance
17. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
18. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
19. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
20. LIMITATION OF ABSTRACT
OF REPORT
OF THIS PAGE
OF ABSTRACT
UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED
UL
Standard Form 298 (Rev. 2-89)
NSN 7540-01-280-5500
Prescribed by ANSI Std. Z39-18
298-102
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