HYDROGEOLOGY – A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE Edited by Gholam A. Kazemi Hydrogeology – A Global Perspective Edited by Gholam A. Kazemi Published by InTech Janeza Trdine 9, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia Copyright © 2012 InTech All chapters are Open Access distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. After this work has been published by InTech, authors have the right to republish it, in whole or part, in any publication of which they are the author, and to make other personal use of the work. Any republication, referencing or personal use of the work must explicitly identify the original source. As for readers, this license allows users to download, copy and build upon published chapters even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. Notice Statements and opinions expressed in the chapters are these of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the published chapters. The publisher assumes no responsibility for any damage or injury to persons or property arising out of the use of any materials, instructions, methods or ideas contained in the book. Publishing Process Manager Masa Vidovic Technical Editor Teodora Smiljanic Cover Designer InTech Design Team First published February, 2012 Printed in Croatia A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com Additional hard copies can be obtained from orders@intechweb.org Hydrogeology – A Global Perspective, Edited by Gholam A. Kazemi p. cm. ISBN 978-953-51-0048-5 Contents Preface VII Chapter 1 Hydrogeology of Karstic Area 1 Haji Karimi Chapter 2 Hydrogeological Significance of Secondary Terrestrial Carbonate Deposition in Karst Environments 43 V.J. Banks and P.F. Jones Chapter 3 A Review of Approaches for Measuring Soil Hydraulic Properties and Assessing the Impacts of Spatial Dependence on the Results 79 Vincenzo Comegna, Antonio Coppola, Angelo Basile and Alessandro Comegna Chapter 4 Significance of Hydrogeochemical Analysis in the Management of Groundwater Resources: A Case Study in Northeastern Iran 141 Gholam A. Kazemi and Azam Mohammadi Chapter 5 Hydrogeological-Geochemical Characteristics of Groundwater in East Banat, Pannonian Basin, Serbia 159 Milka M. Vidovic and Vojin B. Gordanic Chapter 6 Groundwater Management by Using Hydro-Geophysical Investigation: Case Study: An Area Located at North Abu Zabal City 181 Sultan Awad Sultan Araffa Chapter 7 Conceptual Models in Hydrogeology, Methodology and Results 203 Teresita Betancur V., Carlos Alberto Palacio T. and John Fernando Escobar M. Preface The field of groundwater hydrology and the discipline of hydrogeology have attracted a lot of attention during the past few decades. This is mainly because of the increasing need for high quality water, groundwater especially. Groundwater, sitting in the interior parts of the earth, is the main source of water in some localities, yet it is the only source in others. It is generally considered to be naturally protected against pollution and of better quality when compared to the surface water resources. In terms of both quality and quantity, groundwater resources are directly affected by a number of factors including rain and snow falls (climatology), surface soil (pedology), as well as rocks and sediments (geology). Climatic setting of an area determines the amount of rain and snow that fall on the earth's surface. The type and the hydraulic properties of the surface soil cover controls the amount of percolation that can pass through the soil, and finally, the local geology either provides or lacks the space to store the percolated water. Quality and chemistry of groundwater, the source, and the type of contaminants is a full subject of research that is emerging and expanding rapidly. Groundwater not only acts as a source of water, but it also plays important roles in numerous geologic phenomena and processes such as seismic activities, slope stability, flooding and groundwater depedent ecosystems . It also imparts serious impacts on the environment through groundwater driven land subsidence, acid mine drainage, water logging and soil salinization. As a consequence, hydrogeology is closely linked to both geo-engineering field and environmental earth sciences. From another angle, geophysics is a fully matured subject, which deals with groundwater exploration and the best location to site water wells. Fields that relate to hydrogeology are too numerous to count. Therefore, if one is to study groundwater hydrology or hydrogeology, he/she must be equipped with a variety of knowledge and background information in different branches of applied sciences and engineering. On the other hand, the field of hydrogeology covers a broad range of subjects and issues under different headings, which makes editing or authoring a book in this area of science a rather difficult task. The present book is intended to be a monograph in the general discipline of hydrogeology. It clearly shows that issues covered under the field of hydrogeology are highly diverse and wide ranging. As stated, the aim was not to concentrate on any specific topic, and it should be therefore treated as such. After the initial proposal of this book to a number of scientists, we received 13 chapter proposals, 11 of which passed the initial assessment. More than half of the accepted VIII Preface abstracts were submitted and reviewed as full chapters. During the review process, some of these were totally restructured and reshaped. In the following annotation, a short description of each chapter is presented. Chapter one deals with the hydrogeology of karst regions, which can be especially useful for graduate students and practitioners. A good discussion of spring hydrology and hydrochemistry is presented in this chapter. Hydrogeological implications of secondary terrestrial carbonate deposition in karst environments are explained in Chapter 2. This chapter is a new reference on this subject, which aims to bind sedimentology and hydrogeology in karst terrains. Methods and techniques currently used to evaluate the hydraulic properties of the surface soil are reviewed in the third chapter. The authors in this chapter re-emphasize the role of surface soils in the occurrence and formation of groundwater reservoirs. Chapters 4 and 5 discuss hydrogeochemistry and the applications of hydrogeochemical analysis. Several case studies are also included: first, a hydrogeochemical case study in northeastern Iran in Chapter 4 shows the significance of these types of studies in identifying geochemical reactions that are taking place within an stressed aquifer in a semi-arid region. Second, another case study in Serbia, Eastern Europe, deals with hydrogeochemistry and its applications in the mining exploration (Chapter 5). Chapter 6 deals with geophysical investigations as fundamental techniques for exploring groundwater resources and siting the well bores. A case study in the north of the city of Abu Zabal, Egypt, is also described in the same chapter. The final chapter reviews a variety of conceptual models, which are presently used in hydrogeology. It further explains how to verify and use the results of these models. Gholam A. Kazemi Shahrood University of Technology Shahrood, Iran [...]... they are particularly favoured as surfaces of failure because of their great extent Large quantities of water may pass rapidly through the rock via its karst cavities to saturate or lubricate interlaminated or underlying weak or impermeable strata such as clays The forces that resist catastrophic failure within a particular rock are defined by an internal angle of friction Minimum angles for relatively... hydrological budget calculations (Degirmenci and Gunay, 1993; Cardillo-Rivera, 2000), hydrological balance and dye tracing tests (Forti et al, 18 Hydrogeology – A Global Perspective 1990, Karimi et al., 2005), the subsurface catchments were found to be considerably larger than the hydrographic basins Fig 3 Three relations between topographic At and hydrologic Ah catchment area for karst springs (A) At; (B) Ah;... rockhead, aided by undermining and small-scale collapse They are normal features of a karst terrain that have evolved over geological timescales, and the larger features are major landforms An old feature, maybe 1000 m across and 10 m deep, must still have fissured and potentially unstable rock mass somewhere beneath its lowest point Comparable dissolution features are potholes and shafts, but these are... massive carbonates are 26 Hydrogeology – A Global Perspective comparatively rare but there are large ones in dolomites in the Mackenzie Mountains, Canada Toppling cliffs are common in all rocks; see Cruden (1989) for formal analysis Toppling or rotational failures are quite common along escarpment fronts where the permeable karst rock rests on a weak but impermeable base such as a shale; Ali (2005)... Area 17 the springs and streamflows (Bonacci and Zivaljevic, 1993) The determination of the catchment boundaries and the catchment area is the starting point in all hydrologic analyses and one of the essential data, which serve as a basis for all hydrologic calculations In order to exactly define the surface and subsurface catchment boundaries, it is necessary to conduct detailed geologic investigations... surface is karst and 40 percent of the groundwater used for drinking comes from karst aquifers Natural features of the landscape such as caves and springs are typical of karst regions Karst landscapes are often spectacularly scenic areas 2 Karst definition and different types of karst The term karst represents terrains with complex geological features and specific hydrogeological characteristics The karst... discharge is more or less the same at the beginning and end of the water balance year In this condition, there are relatively no changes in the system storage and the mean annual discharge of a spring can be used for calculating the annual volume of discharge If the discharges of a spring at the beginning and end of the water balance year are different; the total discharge of the spring due to the water... different catchment areas Step 5 Tracing and geophysics: The catchment areas determined with a high uncertainty about them, could be verified using tracing and geophysical tests Because of the uncertainty in recharge coefficient, the error in the determined catchment area could be as high as 10 percent The catchment area of the Alvand Basin springs, west of Iran, was calculated based on equation 4, and according... reach to the recording station (Hess and White, 1988) Hess and White (1993) stated that fluctuation in hardness fit the well-established concept that hardness variability is an indication of conduit karstic drainage system as has been 22 Hydrogeology – A Global Perspective observed for many conduit karst aquifers in North America and Europe (Pitty, 1966; Ternan, 1972; Atkinson, 1977) Fig 5 (a) Discharge,... reservoirs that never held water Prevention Hydrogeology of Karstic Area 25 of unanticipated remedial measures in karst terrains now imposes a lot of economic problems each year on the governments 5.1 Rock slide-avalanche hazards in karst A landslide or rock slide-avalanche is the catastrophically rapid fall or slide of large masses of fragmented bedrock such as limestone (Cruden, 1985) ‘Landslide’ is . Hydro-Geophysical Investigation: Case Study: An Area Located at North Abu Zabal City 181 Sultan Awad Sultan Araffa Chapter 7 Conceptual Models in Hydrogeology, Methodology and Results 203 Teresita Betancur. and Alessandro Comegna Chapter 4 Significance of Hydrogeochemical Analysis in the Management of Groundwater Resources: A Case Study in Northeastern Iran 141 Gholam A. Kazemi and Azam Mohammadi. Lapies Table 1. Classification of karren forms. Light grey areas enclose elementary karst features. Dark grey areas enclose complex large-scale landforms, namely karren assemblages and karrenfield