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Integrated Hydrological Model for Simulating the Impacts of Spring Diversions on Streamflow in the Strawberry Creek Watershed, San Bernardino County, California

November 18, 2025

The Strawberry Creek watershed, situated in the San Bernardino Mountains of southern California, features a group of natural springs known as Arrowhead Springs that have been augmented with diversions in the form of sub-horizontal borings and tunnels. Understanding the impact of these structures on streamflow through groundwater capture is crucial for understanding the impacts of spring diversions in this watershed. The Strawberry Creek integrated hydrological model (SCIHM) constructed to increase this understanding. The SCIHM is an integrated surface runoff and groundwater model that uses GSFLOW software to simulate surface runoff and infiltration with the Precipitation-Runoff Model System (PRMS) and groundwater flow with MODFLOW. The model has three layers, 263 rows, and 176 columns. The model area includes the Strawberry Creek and four adjacent watersheds. The PRMS model was calibrated using two streamflow gaging stations and the GSFLOW model was calibrated to reported spring diversion discharge and a sparse number of groundwater-level measurements. The SCIHM was run with diversions operating (model files and folders have the suffix "_div") and without diversions operating (model files and folders have the suffix "_base") and simulated streamflow for the two versions was compared. 

Publication Year 2025
Title Integrated Hydrological Model for Simulating the Impacts of Spring Diversions on Streamflow in the Strawberry Creek Watershed, San Bernardino County, California
DOI 10.5066/P13AN2RJ
Authors Derek W Ryter
Product Type Data Release
Record Source USGS Asset Identifier Service (AIS)
USGS Organization Sacramento Projects Office (USGS California Water Science Center)
Rights This work is marked with CC0 1.0 Universal
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