Abstract:
Evaluation of recession hydrographs, from four karst springs in Europe, provides important information concerning the flow process operating in karst aquifer systems. Three analytic equations are used to evaluate the hydrographs: Mangin's equation, that assumes the recession is composed of both quickflow and baseflow; Coutagne's equation which considers the recession to be the response of a single reservoir; and a new function, H(t) (which is derived from Coutagne's equation), that refers to the whole recession curve. Using Mangin's equation it is apparent that the saturated zone and thus baseflow exerts nearly complete control over the discharge of La Villa spring and is fairly important at Fuente Mayor and Baget springs, but is much less significant at Aliou spring. The saturated zone accounts for 100%, 90%, 91%, and 40% respectively for these springs. Using Coutagne's equation and H(t) it is concluded that for Aliou and Baget springs, water flows freely in the high transmissive zones, but in the poorly transmissive zones, there is little continuity of connection in the system. At Fuente Mayor spring the differences in these zones are not so apparent and a gradual transition occurs. However, at La Villa spring, the karst aquifer is evidently much more homogeneous and the discharge is similar to that of a porous intergranular aquifer