Recharge and baseflow of a first order stream in the Piedmont

A groundwater model is applied to a rural watershed to evaluate the impact of urbanization on groundwater recharge and baseflow. The saturated zone model of a zero order watershed near Watkinsville, Georgia, an area of the Piedmont physiographic region, was developed to simulate 423 days of hydraulic data. A sensitivity analysis was performed to evaluate uncertainties in model parameters. Five land use scenarios were investigated: (1) A rural pasture; a housing development on (2) city sewer; (3) with leaky sewer/water lines; (4) with septic sewer; and (5) with septic sewer and single home wells. While the methodology is useful in predicting baseflow differences between land uses, the results are sensitive to yearly climatic conditions reflected in the initial conditions.