There are several springs with the large discharge around the Watuputih Karst Hills area that playing a crucial role in supplying water for both domestic and irrigation needs. The springs are located in the fault and fold zones of the Rembang anticlinorium system. This study was designed to determine the characteristics of karst aquifers from one year of monthly spatio-temporal data on discharge parameters and physico-chemical properties (temperature, pH, EC, Ca2+, Mg2+, HCO3–) of the four major springs, namely Brubulan Tahunan, Sumbersemen, Brubulan Pesucen, and Sendang Sayuran. It used sta-tistical calculations to characterize spring discharge and hydrochemical variations, as well as bivariate correlation analysis and flow-duration curve (FDC). The variability index (Iv), variability (V), and spring coefficient of variation parameters (SCVP) classified Brubulan Tahunan and Sumbersemen as springs producing stable, fairly constant discharge with low variations but characterized Brubulan Pesucen as having unstable, varying discharge with moderate variations. The results showed gently sloping hydrograph, low variations in discharge and hydrochemical properties, a relatively prolonged re-sponse of discharge and CO2-H2O-CaCO3 interaction to rainfall, and slope changes in the FDC. In other terms, although the springs are controlled by faults and folds, they have diffuse groundwater storage system in the form of densely fractured and porous media. These findings also indicate a less developed interconnected conduit, although Brubulan Pesucen is relatively more developed than Sumbersemen and Brubulan Tahunan. The geological structure and hydraulic gradient formed between the groundwater recharge and discharge areas are proven to control the amount of spring discharge actively.
Imotsko-Bekijsko Polje has an area of 9 500 ha and is one of the biggest karst fields (polje) in the Dinaric Mountains, extending over the territory of two states: Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Many hydraulic structures (reservoirs, retentions, tunnels, etc.) have been built since the middle of 20th century in order to protect polje against floods. Therefore, the security from flooding has increased substantially. However, there is still periodical flooding in the southeastern lowest part of the polje. The largest flood in recent times was in January 2010, when 2676 ha (28% of the area) was flooded. The polje is a typical karst with very complex hydrological and hydrogeological relations. In this paper two hydrological stations, Nuga at the lowest part and Kamenmost in the central part of the polje with respectable hydrological series, are statistically analysed. In particular, the efficiency of existing hydraulic structures for flood mitigation is estimated. The research points out that floods in Imotsko-Bekijsko Polje are largely influenced by water management objects (reservoir, retention, tunnel) and only indirectly by precipitation.
The objective of this paper is a review of data on reconstruction of the Pleistocene palaeogeography (environment) and stratigraphy based on studies of karst sites in the Świętokrzyskie (Holy Cross) Mountains. Although the number of known Pleistocene karst sites in this region is small, the investigations of them have played a crucial role in a research of the Pleistocene. The study of the Kozi Grzbiet site provided the first evidences for new climatostratigraphy and classification of glaciations in Poland. The explanation of genesis of cryogenic calcite crystals discovered in Chelosiowa Jama-Jaskinia Jaworznicka cave system started a new direction of palaeoenvironmental reconstructions of the last glacial period. Kadzielnia palaeontological site was one of the first Early Pleistocene fossil assemblages in karst studied in Poland, whereas Raj cave provided abundant palaeontological and archaeological material from the Last Glacial. Other sites are of less scientific importance, however some of them can be used in education and popularisation of geosciences. Small number of already studied sites does not exclude discoveries of next sites of high scientific importance.
The use of non-centralised water supply in remote settlements is currently the only possible option. Monitoring the wa-ter quality of such supply sources is a complicated task in such areas, especially when there are active karst processes and difficult groundwater conditions. The application of deterministic analytical models of water supply under the risk of dis-turbance to groundwater dynamics is not efficient. Significant quantitative and even qualitative changes in groundwater conditions may take place between the calculated points, and the underestimation of these changes in expectation-driven computation models may result in serious geoecological issues. This research studied and justifies the use of adaptive dy-namic hydrogeological control in an area of non-centralised water supply based on the identification of key zones of geo-dynamic karst monitoring and the electrical express-monitoring of water resources. The identification of key zones is based on an integrated analysis of available groundwater information that describes changes in groundwater hydrodynamic condi-tions at the time of the karst forecast. The development of karst-suffusion processes is accompanied by more intense dy-namic changes in local areas of geologic environment compared to the general variation in intensity. Information about the occurrence of destructive groundwater processes by means of selective geodynamic monitoring may thus be obtained much earlier than with environmental geodynamics monitoring as a whole. The experimental hydrogeological control of an area of non-centralised water supply was conducted on the right bank of the Oka River in Nizhny Novgorod region, a locality with an active manifestation of karst processes. Structure and algorithms of space-time processing of hydrogeological con-trol data developed by authors have been used. The approach based on multifrequency vertical electrical sounding (MFVES) method has shown good correspondence with direct borehole observation when measuring depth of the first aq-uifer. Zones of unsafe water use have been revealed. The results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method and the need for further regular observations of destructive groundwater processes by means of selective hydrogeodynamic monitoring.