Groundwater recharge by channel infiltration in El Barbon basin, Baja California, Mexico

The amount of groundwater recharge by channel infiltration is estimated for El Barbon basin, in Baja California, Mexico. The basin's lower portion includes the valleys of Ojos Negros and Real del Castillo Viejo, which are crossed by several ephemeral washes, including the mainstem El Barbon Wash. A distributed catchment model with the capability for nonlinear channel routing and channel abstraction is used to calculate groundwater recharge by channel infiltration for storm events of 2-, 5-, 10-, 25-, 50-, and 100-yr return period. The results confirm that event channel infiltration can be a substantial component of the vertical recharge. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.