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Join us for an insightful webinar exploring how changes in watershed geomorphology can influence groundwater–surface water interactions and redistribute water across landscapes over time.
Presentation Title: The Hidden Role of Geomorphological Change in Watershed-Scale Redistributions of Groundwater and Surface Water
Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Abstract:
The interactions between groundwater and surface water are important in the overall availability of water resources and for natural hazard mitigation. A hidden factor in these systems is the geomorphological change that watersheds undergo, which may interrupt GW-SW interactions and redistribute water between the two domains across a range of spatio-temporal scales. This study examines the role of geomorphic change in GW-SW interactions, using numerical modeling with HydroGeoSphere, which is an integrated hydrologic simulator that explicitly couples surface and subsurface flows. Specifically, we simulate and compare various land surface domains, with varied river morphologies, to mimic realistic shifts in the morphology of the surface. Results show that natural geomorphic change could induce changes in the hydrologic regime far beyond the river corridor. The response of the system, indicated by changes in the groundwater table, reflects changes that are comparable in magnitude to percentages of the effective rainfall. Importantly, results suggest that localized morphological changes on the reach scale, such as river cutoffs, act as hinge points along the watershed that separate positive (enrichment) and negative (depletion) domains of change in groundwater tables. These results have important implications for watershed-scale hydrology, water resources management, and natural hazard mitigation.
Presenter Bio:
Marcia Achiaa Frempong is a PhD candidate in the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she works with Dr. Anner Paldor. Her research applies hydrogeologic modeling to simulate the dynamic interactions between surface water and groundwater under geomorphic change, with a focus on how landscape evolution reshapes water availability and distribution over time. She holds a BSc in Civil Engineering from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana and an MSc in Hydrology and Water Quality from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba, Israel. Her graduate training spans three countries and bridges engineering, hydrology, and environmental science. Marcia is passionate about advancing water-resources management and infrastructure through a deeper understanding of coupled surface and subsurface water processes, and she is committed to translating that research into practical solutions for water security.
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Register for this webinar to explore how geomorphological change can influence groundwater–surface water interactions and water distribution across watersheds. This session highlights how HydroGeoSphere can be used to examine the hydrologic impacts of changing river morphology and landscape evolution.