Integrating field work and large-scale modeling to improve assessment of karst water resources

<p>Comprehensive management of karst water resources requires sufficient understanding of their dynamics and karst-specific modeling tools. However, the limited availability of observations of karstic groundwater dynamics has been prohibiting the assessment of karst water resources at regional to global scales. This paper presents the first global effort to integrate experimental approaches and large-scale modeling. Using a global soil-moisture monitoring program and a global database of karst spring discharges, the simulations of a preliminary global karstic-groundwater-recharge model are evaluated. It is shown that soil moisture is a crucial variable that better distinguishes recharge dynamics in different climates and for different land cover types. The newly developed dataset of karst spring discharges provides first insights into the wide variability of discharge volumes and recharge areas of different karst springs around the globe. Comparing the model simulations with the newly collected soil-moisture and spring-discharge observations, indicates that (1) improvements of the recharge model are still necessary to obtain a better representation of different land cover types and snow processes, and (2) there is a need to incorporate groundwater dynamics. Applying and strictly evaluating these improvements in the model will finally provide a tool to identify hot spots of current or future water scarcity in the karst regions around the globe, thus supporting national and international water governance.</p>

The karst and the furious – ways to keep calm when dealing with karst hydrology

<p>The dissolution of carbonate rock ‘karstification’ creates pronounced surface and subsurface heterogeneity and results in complex flow and transport dynamics. Consequently, water resources managers face significant challenges keeping calm when dealing with karst water resources especially in times of environmental change. My lecture not only will provide an overview of the peculiarities of karst hydrology but it will also offer some approaches that facilitate the assessment of environmental changes on karst water resources. Using two case studies, one at the plot scale and the other at the scale of an entire continent, I will contrast the opportunities and challenges of dealing with karst across different scales and climatic regions. Along these case studies, I will elaborate (1) how understanding on dominant karst processes can be obtained, (2) how this understanding can be incorporated into karst specific modelling approaches, and (3) how karst models developed at different scales can be used for water management. The presentation will conclude with some thoughts to facilitate less furious implementations of karst approaches for everyone.</p>

Integrating field work and large-scale modeling to improve assessment of karst water resources

Comprehensive management of karst water resources requires sufficient understanding of their dynamics and karst-specific modeling tools. However, the limited availability of observations of karstic groundwater dynamics has been prohibiting the assessment of karst water resources at regional to global scales. This paper presents the first global effort to integrate experimental approaches and large-scale modeling. Using a global soil-moisture monitoring program and a global database of karst spring discharges, the simulations of a preliminary global karstic-groundwater-recharge model are evaluated. It is shown that soil moisture is a crucial variable that better distinguishes recharge dynamics in different climates and for different land cover types. The newly developed dataset of karst spring discharges provides first insights into the wide variability of discharge volumes and recharge areas of different karst springs around the globe. Comparing the model simulations with the newly collected soil-moisture and spring-discharge observations, indicates that (1) improvements of the recharge model are still necessary to obtain a better representation of different land cover types and snow processes, and (2) there is a need to incorporate groundwater dynamics. Applying and strictly evaluating these improvements in the model will finally provide a tool to identify hot spots of current or future water scarcity in the karst regions around the globe, thus supporting national and international water governance.

Karst water resources and their complex utilization in the Bükk Mountains, northeast Hungary: an assessment from a regional hydrogeological perspective

The cold and thermal karst water resources of the Bükk Mountains play a significant role in the hydrogeological setting of northeastern Hungary. Although there is much geological and hydrogeological information available, the regional hydrogeology of the Bükk Mountains had not been described in a standalone study involving all this information. The drinking water supply of the city of Miskolc and some other neighboring cities is based on the cold karst water resources of the Bükk Mountains. The thermal water resources have been getting more important, in terms of balneology and geothermal energy production, in this region over the last decade. An evaluation of the measurements of a 27-year-old groundwater quantity and quality monitoring system was performed. As a result, several types of new field hydrogeology, meteorology and spring discharge measurements were added to the monitoring scheme to provide information for studying the tendencies connected to extreme weather conditions. This will help to achieve sustainable utilization of the karst water resources. The main conclusions drawn in this study underline the importance of the strict measures associated with the water management of the Bükk Mountains because of the limited natural recharge and the continuously increasing demands on the cold and thermal water resources. A success story is found in Miskolc, which demonstrates the sustainable utilization of the deep thermal karst water; Miskolc hosts the largest geothermal heating plant in Central Europe with 60 MWt capacity.

The karst and the furious – ways to keep calm when dealing with karst hydrology

<p>The dissolution of carbonate rock ‘karstification’ creates pronounced surface and subsurface heterogeneity and results in complex flow and transport dynamics. Consequently, water resources managers face significant challenges keeping calm when dealing with karst water resources especially in times of environmental change. My lecture not only will provide an overview of the peculiarities of karst hydrology but it will also offer some approaches that facilitate the assessment of environmental changes on karst water resources. Using two case studies, one at the plot scale and the other at the scale of an entire continent, I will contrast the opportunities and challenges of dealing with karst across different scales and climatic regions. In particular, I will elaborate (1) how understanding on dominant karst processes can be obtained, (2) how this understanding can be incorporated into karst specific modelling approaches, and (3) how karst models developed at different scales can be used for water management and water governance. The presentation will conclude with some thoughts to facilitate less furious implementations of karst approaches for everyone.</p>