Publication Date
5-2020
Abstract
Karst groundwater constitutes a considerable fraction of drinking water in many regions in the world. Understanding its recharge processes is important for a sustainable water resource management. Experimental approaches to study karst aquifers mostly focus on the characterization of the entire aquifer using the disintegration of its output signal measured at the spring. Despite the important role of the soil and epikarst for recharge processes, limited attention has been given to this specific part of the systems. In our study, we present the first results of a soil monitoring program at five representative locations across the globe. We use a large number of soil moisture observations to understand the partitioning of rainfall into infiltration, storage, evapotranspiration, and groundwater recharge at five contrasting climates and two different land use types (forest & grassland). With the present analyses, almost no differences were identified between the two land use types investigated. However, the site with the largest number of soil moisture measurements creating recharge is the one with a tropical climate as expected, as the one with the lowest number is the semi-arid site. However, other sites with different climate conditions like oceanic and Mediterranean show similar results. Other parameters influencing recharge processes should be investigated in the future.
Rights Information
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5038/9781733375313.1033
Using soil moisture observations to characterize groundwater recharge processes at five contrasting climate regions
Karst groundwater constitutes a considerable fraction of drinking water in many regions in the world. Understanding its recharge processes is important for a sustainable water resource management. Experimental approaches to study karst aquifers mostly focus on the characterization of the entire aquifer using the disintegration of its output signal measured at the spring. Despite the important role of the soil and epikarst for recharge processes, limited attention has been given to this specific part of the systems. In our study, we present the first results of a soil monitoring program at five representative locations across the globe. We use a large number of soil moisture observations to understand the partitioning of rainfall into infiltration, storage, evapotranspiration, and groundwater recharge at five contrasting climates and two different land use types (forest & grassland). With the present analyses, almost no differences were identified between the two land use types investigated. However, the site with the largest number of soil moisture measurements creating recharge is the one with a tropical climate as expected, as the one with the lowest number is the semi-arid site. However, other sites with different climate conditions like oceanic and Mediterranean show similar results. Other parameters influencing recharge processes should be investigated in the future.
