Investigation of Changing Hydrologic Conditions of the Coon Creek Watershed in the Driftless Area of Wisconsin

Background/Need
Decreased flooding and increased baseflows in Driftless Area streams over the past century have been attributed to improved land management practices (Gebert and Krug 1996). Kent (1999) tried to relate land management to groundwater recharge (the dominant component of baseflow) in the Driftless Area but the results were largely inconclusive. An understanding of the influence of spatially distributed recharge and hydrostratigraphic properties on local groundwater flow is needed in order to evaluate effects of land management change on the hydrology of the Driftless Area.

Objectives
The purpose of this investigation was: 1) to improve our understanding of groundwater flow in the Driftless Area at various watershed scales, and 2) to evaluate focused recharge (i.e., hillslope recharge) as a driver for changes in baseflow during three different time periods.