Karst Hydrology

Papers and Student Notes.

Notes for Students doing the CSU course on Groundwater in Karst

The following links are to PDF files of Handouts prepared for the CSU residential school at Wombeyan, NSW.

  • Methods for studying and assessing the hydrology of a karst area.
  • Estimating Stream Flow Rates: Rough methods.
  • Estimating Stream Flow rates: V-Notch Weirs. Temporarily removed - as I think there is an inaccuracy in the graph.
  • Estimating OLD Flow-rates: Scallops.
  • Water Sampling.
  • Rules for Dye Tracing.
  • Using Stereoscopic Air Photos.
  • Stereoscopic Photography: do-it-yourself.
  • Selected ASF Cave Map Symbols.
  • Hydrograph Exercise: Wombeyan Creek.

    • Living on karst

  • Living on Karst: - A relocatable image of the web site (2005) of the Living on Karst booklet produced by the Virginia Cave Conservancy
    The online site is at http://members.aol.com/caveconser/page1.htm
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    Hydrology Papers

  • Quinlan 1989: Ground-Water Monitoring in Karst Terranes: Recommended Protocols & Implicit Assumptions.
    A PDF version of his classic US EPA paper on monitoring in karst (which is hard to find in Australia). His 1990 paper (in your readings book) is partly based on this one.
  • Grimes 1999: The Water Below: An introduction to karst hydrology, including a review of Australian karst aquifers
    PDF version (with minor corrections) of a paper presented to the ACKMA conference in 1999.
  • Howles, 2000: Development of potable town water supplies in saline aquifers using ASR.
    ASR = Aquifer Storage and Recovery. This example (referred to in Topic 10) is in a saline "karstic Tertiary limestone aquifer" near the mouth of the Murray River.
  • Technos, 2005: Characterizing Karst and Pseudokarst.
    An updated version of the Benson & Yuhr (1993) reading. It has useful examples of geophysical and other practical techniques for studying the engineering and hydrological properties of karst sites.

    • Student Readings from the Encyclopedia of Caves and Karst Science, edited by J.Gunn, 2004.

  • Environmental Impacts Assessments (Veni 2004).
    EIA's must be tailored to the specific Karst environment, with a hydrological study being the first step as that sets the parameters for following studies. Three Hydro models used in karst are: EPIK, ASTM(1995) and Veni (1999). Prudence is essential.
  • Groundwater in Karst (Smart & Worthington 2004).
    An overview: definitions, aquifers and management of their quality and quantity, groundwater dynamics and factors controlling it, the differences between porous, fracture and karst aquifers, karst recharge, the vadose and phreatic zones.
  • Groundwater in Karst: Borehole Hydrology (Smart & Worthington 2004).
    Cautions about the use of data from boreholes, which may none-the-less be the only sources of information. Discusses the low probability of intersecting a major conduit. Describes the various tests which can be made in and between boreholes.
  • Groundwater in Karst: Conceptual Models (Worthington & Smart 2004).
    Models for development of solutional porosity; the triple-porosity model; young (soft-rock) carbonates have significant matrix porosity; the role of conduits; types of recharge; springs; flow paths.
  • Groundwater Pollution : Dispersed (Boyer 2004).
    Describes various sources and types of dispersed pollutants (as against localised point sources) and protection methods used to manage them.
  • Groundwater Pollution : Point Sources (Schindel & Hoyt 2004).
    Types of point sources & contaminants, and regulations (USA).
  • Karst Water Resources (Smart & Worthington 2004).
    Resources for human use: Lack of surface water; Underground sources, epikarst aquifers, springs; Exploration is difficult. Problems: drawdowns, overexploitation, pollution. Methods for monitoring.

    • Other Karst Manuals & Readings

  • Karst Management Handbook for British Columbia, 2003: (PDF)
    Written mainly for Forestry Operations on karst - and the relevance to Australian karsts is best for those in Tasmania.

    • GIS Book

  • What is ArcGIS. An introduction to GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and to the ArcInfo software suite in particular.
    This is a 20 Meg PDF file which can be downloaded from the internet. The 2005 edition is included here for those with slow phone lines!
    See in particular:
    * Chapter 1: GIS concepts and requirements.
    * Chapter 8: GIS data concepts and the geodatabase.
    * Glossary of GIS terms.
    The rest is more specific to the ArcGIS system - Useful if you are thinking of buying it and unsure which modules you need.

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    Other Student material

  • Folder holding other files
    If you were given this CD-ROM as a student at a CSU Karst Management study school, you may find some extra files here that you were told about. If not, probably not.
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