The high karst plateau of Trnovsko-Banjška planota is one of the most important reservoirs of karst water in Slovenia. Almost all important karst springs in this area are captured for water supply. A ...sustainable management of this source of groundwater is of strategic importance, not only as drinking water supply but also for the economy. For these reasons, many hydrogeological monitoring studies have been carried out over the last decades. However, no consistent regional overview of the hydrogeological functioning of Trnovsko-Banjška planota was available and we decided to study this area with more direct approach based on 3D geological and hydrogeological models. The so called KARSYS approach was developed in Switzerland and applied primarily to characterize groundwater reserves within a karst massif, and to sketch the main flow-paths carrying groundwater from recharge areas to the respective springs. The delineation of spring catchment areas in karst regions was better defined and interactions between catchments were interpreted. These results can be used to improve the management of karst waters in the studied area.
An essential issue in karst hydrology is the characterization of the hydrogeological flow systems, i.e., the delineation of catchment areas and the organization of the main flow paths (conduit ...network) feeding one or several outlets. The proposed approach provides an explicit way to sketch catchment areas, and to generate karst conduits on the basis of a three-dimensional (3D) conceptual model of the aquifer (KARSYS approach). The approach follows three main principles: (1) conduits develop according to the hydraulic gradient, which depends on the aquifer zonation, (2) conduits are guided by preferential guidance features (or inception horizons) prevailing in the unsaturated and saturated zones of the aquifer, and (3) conduits initiate on a regular basis below the autogenic zone of the catchment area. This approach was applied to a site in the Swiss Jura as a base for the assessment of flood-hazard risks. The resulting model proposes a new delineation of the system catchment area and appears fairer regarding hydrological measurements than previous interpretations, which under-estimated the catchment area by about 20 %. Furthermore, the proposed conduit network for the whole aquifer is also consistent with local cave surveys and dye-tracing observations. These interesting results demonstrate that the combination of this approach with the KARSYS 3D model provides an integrated and effective way for the characterization of karst-flow systems.
Zusammenfassung
Trotz ihrer großen Bedeutung als Wasserressource steht für Karst-Grundwasserleiter auch in der Schweiz eine systematische Abgrenzung und quantitative Beschreibung noch aus. Das Fehlen ...eines integralen Ansatzes zur Charakterisierung von Karstsystemen mag dazu beigetragen haben. Im Rahmen eines Projektes zur Dokumentation der Karst-Grundwasserleiter in der Schweiz (SWISSKARST) war mit der KARSYS-Methode ein pragmatischer Ansatz zur hydraulischen Charakterisierung einzelner Grundwasserleiter und Karstsysteme entwickelt worden. Eine Weiterentwicklung dieses Ansatzes beinhaltet ein Verfahren zur kartographischen 2D-Darstellung des erstellten 3D-Modellkonzepts, welche sowohl auf wissenschaftliche als auch auf Fragestellungen der Praxis ausgerichtet ist. Dazu werden zunächst mehrere thematische Karten mit den wichtigsten Eigenschaften der Karst-Grundwassersysteme erstellt, welche dann zu einer synthetisierten Karte zusammengefasst werden.
Trotz ihrer großen Bedeutung als Wasserressource steht für Karst-Grundwasserleiter auch in der Schweiz eine systematische Abgrenzung und quantitative Beschreibung noch aus. Das Fehlen eines ...integralen Ansatzes zur Charakterisierung von Karstsystemen mag dazu beigetragen haben. Im Rahmen eines Projektes zur Dokumentation der Karst-Grundwasserleiter in der Schweiz (SWISSKARST) war mit der KARSYS-Methode ein pragmatischer Ansatz zur hydraulischen Charakterisierung einzelner Grundwasserleiter und Karstsysteme entwickelt worden. Eine Weiterentwicklung dieses Ansatzes beinhaltet ein Verfahren zur kartographischen 2D-Darstellung des erstellten 3D-Modellkonzepts, welche sowohl auf wissenschaftliche als auch auf Fragestellungen der Praxis ausgerichtet ist. Dazu werden zunächst mehrere thematische Karten mit den wichtigsten Eigenschaften der Karst-Grundwassersysteme erstellt, welche dann zu einer synthetisierten Karte zusammengefasst werden.
In spite of their abundant water resources, in Switzerland as well as in other countries, the location and extent of karst aquifers have not yet been systematically studied and documented – mainly ...due to the lack of systematic and dedicated approaches for their characterization. In the framework of a project aiming at documenting the karst aquifers in Switzerland (SWISSKARST Project) the pragmatic KARSYS approach has been developed to systematically assess the main characteristics of karst aquifers and karst systems. One part of this project deals with the development of a practical method for mapping 2D hydrogeological karst systems, which is designed to address both scientific and applied issues. A series of maps based on the approach is proposed to describe the main characteristics of karst groundwater systems resulting in a synthesized map which suitably combines all relevant information.
UDC 556.3:551.435.8(497.4) Janez Turk, Arnauld Malard, Pierre-Yves Jeannin, Jonathan Vouillamoz, Jean Masini, Metka Petric, Franci Gabrovsek, Natasa Ravbar, Tadej Slabe: Interpretation of ...hydrogeological functioning of a high karst plateau using the KARSYS approach: the case of Trnovsko-Banjska planota (Slovenia) The high karst plateau of Trnovsko-Banjska planota is one of the most important reservoirs of karst water in Slovenia. Almost all important karst springs in this area are captured for water supply. A sustainable management of this source of groundwater is of strategic importance, not only as drinking water supply but also for the economy. For these reasons, many hydrogeological monitoring studies have been carried out over the last decades. However, no consistent regional overview of the hydrogeological functioning of Trnovsko-Banjska planota was available and we decided to study this area with more direct approach based on 3D geological and hydrogeological models. The so called KARSYS approach was developed in Switzerland and applied primarily to characterize groundwater reserves within a karst massif, and to sketch the main flow-paths carrying groundwater from recharge areas to the respective springs. The delineation of spring catchment areas in karst regions was better defined and interactions between catchments were interpreted. These results can be used to improve the management of karst waters in the studied area.
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