The objective of this Special Issue, “Hydraulic Behavior of Karst Aquifers”, is to focus on recent advances in karst hydrogeology in different areas of the world, focusing on topics dealing with the peculiar characteristics of karst aquif...
Karst aquifers in the Dinaric karst are very rich with groundwater and are a very important resource for public water supply. The characteristics of the Dinaric karst are the lack, or very thin layer, of covering deposits, large amounts of precipitat...
Karstic groundwater basins are characterized by both point and diffuse recharge. This paper describes the hydrologic characteristics of point recharge and their influence on recharge estimation for four groundwater basins. Point recharge is highly tr...
Coastal karst aquifers show a three-dimensional vulnerability, which consists of the whole of the “intrinsic vulnerability” and the “groundwater vulnerability to seawater intrusion”. The results of a study carried out in the S...
The article “Characteristics of Point Recharge in Karst Aquifers, Water 6: 2782–2807” by N. Somaratne evaluates various recharge estimation techniques applied to four limestone aquifers in South Australia. Somaratne [1] concludes that methods based...
The efficacy of water resource management and protection hinges on a profound understanding of the controlling factors and regulatory mechanisms that shape groundwater chemistry within aquifers. Despite this, our comprehension of how groundwater chem...
Modern sawing techniques employed in ornamental stones’ exploitation produce large amounts of slurry that can be potentially diffused into the environment by runoff water. Slurry produced by limestone and marble quarrying can impact local karst...
The development of fractures and conduits in karst aquifers and the strength of their water richness are key factors in determining whether a water intrusion will occur in a mine. In the phosphorus mining process, if the mining of water-rich areas is...
In many Italian regions, and particularly in southern Italy, karst aquifers are the main sources of drinking water and play a crucial role in the socio-economic development of the territory. Hence, estimating the groundwater recharge of these aquifer...
The results of a series of continuous characterizations of physical parameters (flow, temperature, water conductivity) and chemical analyses in water springs fed by karst aquifers located in the Piedmont region (northwestern Italy) are presented in t...
Carbonate and karst aquifers are of great importance for human water supplies, for supporting aquatic habitats and providing ecosystem services. Optimizing the groundwater withdrawals is therefore essential for obtaining the maximum flow rate for hum...
Understanding groundwater quality in karst environments is essential, particularly in semi-arid regions where water resources are highly vulnerable to both climatic variability and anthropogenic pressures. The Ghar Boumaaza karst aquifer, located in...
Environmental isotope tracers were applied in the Upper Crocodile River Basin, Johannesburg, South Africa, to understand the groundwater recharge conditions, flow mechanisms and interactions between surface and subsurface water. Stable isotope analys...
In recent years vulnerability maps have been used as a tool to highlight the areas with the greatest potential for groundwater pollution based on the hydrogeological conditions and their respective human impacts. Several regions of Greece depend comp...
Aquifer vulnerability maps can improve groundwater management for sustainable anthropogenic development. The latest update of karst aquifer vulnerability mapping is named: the Protection of Aquifers base on Protection, Rock type, Infiltration and KAr...
Sustainable groundwater production from karst aquifers is primarily dictated by its recharge rate. Therefore, it is essential to accurately quantify annual groundwater recharge in order to limit overexploitation and to evaluate artificial methods for...
The Jinan Karst Spring System in Shandong province, China, has suffered to maintain groundwater level and spring flowing for decades. Recharge of river water to karst aquifer in Jinan is important for the outflowing of four large karst springs in the...
The karst aquifers of the Hellenic territory display high vulnerability that is related to the existence of the epikarst zone. If present, the epikarst zone regulates the vertical movement of the groundwater, which results in the chemical pollutants...
Groundwater is an important water resource, and groundwater level (GWL) forecasting is a useful tool for supporting the sustainable management of water resources. Existing studies have shown that GWLs can be accurately predicted by combining an artif...
The article “Karst aquifer recharge: Comments on ‘Characteristics of Point Recharge in Karst Aquifers’, by Adrian D. Werner, 2014, Water 6, doi:10.3390/w6123727” provides misrepresentation in some parts of Somaratne [1]. The description of Uley South...
Water resources management is one of the most important challenges worldwide because water represents a vital resource for sustaining life and the environment. With the aim of sustainable groundwater management, the identification of aquifer recharge...
The present study highlights the importance of geological, hydrogeological, and hydrogeochemical characterization of a karst aquifer in building a conceptual model of the system. The karst system of Krania–Elassona in central Greece was chosen...
The overlying strata layers of coal workfaces with karst aquifer water normally causes serious safety problems due to the precipitation, drainage and water inrush, such as a wide range and long term of surface subsidence. In this study, by taking 10,...
Natural recharge in karst aquifers is a key component of global water resources, yet its estimation remains challenging due to the complexity of karst hydrogeological processes. The recharge assessment deserves special consideration, especially in th...
The objective of this study is to define groundwater management zones for a complex deformed and fissured Precambrian karst aquifer, which underlies one of the most important agricultural areas in the semi-arid region of Irecê, Bahia, Brazil. I...
In this work, electrical resistivity tomography was carried out together with physical hydrogeology techniques to evaluate the karst aquifer in the northwest region of the Yucatán Peninsula in a study area near the western edge of the Ring of...
Karst groundwater is one of the primary water resources in most provinces of Southwestern China where karst topography is strongly featured. In Guizhou Province, a prominent geologic sedimentary formation is the dolomite stratum which exists as the r...
Natural attenuation of groundwater contamination occurs at some level for all aquifers impacted with organic contaminants. The issues regarding natural attenuation are whether it takes place at a sufficient rate to be protective of human health and t...
Karst aquifers are essential drinking water sources, representing about 25% of the total available sources globally. Groundwater ecosystems consist of fissured carbonate rocks commonly covered with canopy collapse sinkholes. The open nature of karst...
Time series of micrometeorological data from the CNR ISAC-Lecce base have been used to estimate the seasonal/yearly surface infiltration in the period 2003–2016 in the Salento peninsula (Southern Italy). The estimated values of infiltration were comp...
The Qinglian River plays a significant role in China’s national water conservation security patterns. To clarify the relationship between hydrogeochemical properties and groundwater quality in this karst-fissure aquifer system, drilling data, h...
11 August 2021
The study of the hydrochemical characteristics and the water–rock interaction of karst groundwater is very important for the rational exploitation of karst groundwater and its pollution control. In this paper, the systematic clustering method was use...
We investigate the long-distance salinity in a dual permeability coastal karst aquifer with a double conduit network using a three-dimensional variable-density groundwater flow and multispecies transport SEAWAT model. Sensitivity analyses were used t...
Groundwater from karst circulation systems of Central Italy were sampled and analyzed, in 2018, for delineating a preliminary, general geochemical framework of their relationship with neotectonics, in an area characterized by a frequent and often des...
Karst aquifers are critical yet vulnerable water resources in semi-arid Mediterranean regions, where structural complexity, nonlinearity, and delayed hydrological responses pose significant modeling challenges under increasing climatic and anthropoge...
Karst aquifers in the Mediterranean region are crucial for water supply and agriculture but are increasingly threatened by climate change and overexploitation. The Jebel Zaghouan aquifer, historically significant for supplying Carthage and Tunis, ser...
Underground engineering construction in the karst regions of Southwestern China has become a focal point of China’s advancing regional urban development. However, construction activities interfere with the karst groundwater environment, which i...
The Apuan Alps (Italy) are an internationally renowned karst region where several karst springs have a mean discharge exceeding 100 L/s, thus representing important water resources. One of the major springs, the Pollaccia, was monitored for approxima...
The karst aquifer of the Ljubljanica River catchment, which has numerous springs and sinks, presents an interesting environment for studying hydrogeological processes. This study aims to explore the behavior of U isotopes and to evaluate their use as...
Jinan, China, is famous for its springs. However, societal and economic development over the past decades has detrimentally altered the natural water cycle in the spring area. Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) is an effective measure to ensure the norma...
Earthquakes are known to affect groundwater properties, yet the mechanisms causing chemical and physical aquifer changes are still unclear. The Apennines mountain belt in Italy presents a rich literature of case studies documenting hydrogeochemical r...
This work reports, for the first time, the mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of karst aquifers in the Central West Bank (CWB) catchment in Palestine. It provides an integrated study approach by correlating the geochemistry of the litholog...
27 May 2021
It is a challenge to describe the hydrogeological characteristics of karst aquifers due to the complex structure with extremely high heterogeneity. As the response of karst aquifers to rainfall events, spring discharge variations after precipitation...
This work represents a contribution to the protection techniques of karst aquifers against groundwater pollution. The paper sets out the methodology being introduced for the protection of the karstic system that gives rise to five (5) major groups of...
One of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Adriatic coast, the city of Opatija, is facing a problem concerning seasonal drinking water shortages. The existing water resources are no longer sufficient, and attention is being given to altern...
The intensification of anthropogenic activities (agriculture, industry, and exploitation of water resources) during urbanization has posed significant challenges to the aquatic environment, particularly in karst regions. Karst aquifers are highly sus...
To study hydrogeological characteristics after the occurrence of abnormal water bursts from the weak water-rich (permeable) aquifer of the Changxing Formation limestone overlying deep working faces during production in Guizhou karst landform mining a...
As a specific type of landscape and aquifer, karst is developed in soluble carbonate and evaporitic rocks and is of great importance for humanity. It covers more than 15% of Earth’s ice-free land and its aquifers provide about 10% of the world popula...
Karst aquifer recharge areas are usually difficult to identify because of the complexity of these aquifers’ characteristics. On the other hand, their identification is very important in the aim of protecting the groundwater resources that these...
Due to the coexistence of multiple types of reservoir bodies and widely distributed aquifer support in karst carbonate reservoirs, it remains a great challenge to understand the reservoir flow dynamics based on traditional capacitance–resistanc...
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