Predevelopment interconnection of surface and ground water along Big Chino Wash

The planform pattern of Big Chino Wash provides information on past streamflow characteristics that created the floor of Big Chino Valley. The valley floor, and thus the bed and bank of the wash channel, is composed of sediment transported by the wash. The shape of the alluvial channel is uniquely produced by the type of streamflow. For example, a pattern of meandering stream channels, when viewed from above, is uniquely produced by perennial or intermittent flow that is interconnection with underlying groundwater. In Arizona, the resulting saturated floodplain Holocene alluvium is defined as the subflow zone. Appropriable water includes surface water and subsurface water of the subflow zone. Thus, the present geomorphology of Big Chino Wash contains information of past streamflow and groundwater conditions that is useful to water managers, river engineers and hydrologists.
Analysis by Win Hjalmarson, PE, USGS Ret. View Document.