ABSTRACT Water from the alluvium of ephemeral rivers in Zimbabwe is increasingly being used. These alluvial aquifers are recharged annually from infiltrating floodwater. Nonetheless, the size of this water resource is not without limit and an understanding of the hydrological processes of an alluvial aquifer is required for its sustainable management. This paper presents the development of a water balance model, which estimates the water level in an alluvial aquifer recharged by surface flow and rainfall, while allowing for abstraction, evaporation and other losses. The model is coupled with a watershed model, which generates inflows from upland catchment areas and tributaries. Climate, hydrological, land cover and geomorphological data were collected as inputs to both models as well as observed flow and water levels for model calibration and validation. The sand river model was found to be good at simulating the observed water level and was most sensitive to porosity and seepage.

中文翻译：

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模拟津巴布韦西南部一条短暂河流冲积含水层的水位

摘要 来自津巴布韦短暂河流冲积层的水越来越多地被使用。这些冲积含水层每年从渗入的洪水中得到补给。尽管如此，这种水资源的规模并非没有限制，需要了解冲积含水层的水文过程才能对其进行可持续管理。本文介绍了水平衡模型的发展，该模型估算了由地表流量和降雨补给的冲积含水层中的水位，同时考虑了取水、蒸发和其他损失。该模型与流域模型相结合，从高地集水区和支流产生流入。气候、水文、收集土地覆盖和地貌数据作为两个模型的输入以及用于模型校准和验证的观测流量和水位。沙河模型被发现擅长模拟观测到的水位，对孔隙度和渗流最为敏感。