Global karst springs hydrograph dataset for research and management of the world’s fastest-flowing groundwater

Tunde Olarinoye (1) , Tom Gleeson (2) , Vera Marx (1) , Stefan Seeger (1) , Rouhollah Adinehvand (3) , Vincenzo Allocca (4) , Bartolomé Andreo (5) , James Apaéstegui (6) , Christophe Apolit , Bruno Arfib (7) , Augusto Auler (8) , Juan Antonio Barbera (5) , Christelle Batiot-Guilhe (9) , Timothy Bechtel , Stéphane Binet (10, 11) , Daniel Bittner , Matej Blatnik , Terry Bolger , Pascal Brunet (9) , Jean-Baptiste Charlier (12) , Zhao Chen (13) , Gabriele Chiogna , Gemma Coxon , Pantaleone de Vita , Joanna Doummar , Jannis Epting , Matthieu Fournier (14) , Nico Goldscheider (15) , John Gunn , Fang Guo , Jean Loup Guyot (16) , Nicholas Howden , Peter Huggenberger (17) , Brian Hunt (18) , Pierre-Yves Jeannin (19) , Guanghui Jiang , Greg Jones , Hervé Jourde (9) , Ivo Karmann , Oliver Koit , Jannes Kordilla , David Labat (16) , Bernard Ladouche (12) , Isabella Serena Liso , Zaihua Liu , Nicolas Massei (14) , Naomi Mazzilli (20) , Matias Mudarra (21) , Mario Parise , Junbing Pu , Nataša Ravbar , Liz Stefanny Hidalgo Sánchez (22) , Antonio Santo , Martin Sauter (23) , Vianney Sivelle (16) , Rannveig Øvrevik Skoglund , Zoran Stevanovic , Cameron Wood , Stephen Worthington , Andreas Hartmann

1 University of Freiburg [Freiburg]
2 Department of Anthropology [University of Victoria]
3 Shiraz University - Shiraz University
4 University of Naples Federico II = Università degli studi di Napoli Federico II
5 centro de hidrogeologia
6 IGP - Instituto Geofísico del Perú
7 CEREGE - Centre européen de recherche et d'enseignement des géosciences de l'environnement
8 Carste Consultores Associados
9 HSM - Hydrosciences Montpellier
10 ISTO - Institut des Sciences de la Terre d'Orléans - UMR7327
11 Biogéosystèmes Continentaux - UMR7327
12 BRGM - Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM)
13 Fudan University [Shanghai]
14 M2C - Morphodynamique Continentale et Côtière
15 Institute of Applied Geosciences, Division of Hydrogeology
16 GET - Géosciences Environnement Toulouse
17 Department of Environmental Sciences [Basel]
18 MIO - Institut méditerranéen d'océanologie
19 SISKA - Swiss Institute for Speleology and Karstology
20 EMMAH - Environnement Méditerranéen et Modélisation des Agro-Hydrosystèmes
21 Centro de hidrogeologia, Universidad Malaga
22 LOCEAN - Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques
23 GZG - Geowissenschaftliches Zentrum Göttingen

Karst aquifers provide drinking water for 10% of the world’s population, support agriculture, groundwater-dependent activities, and ecosystems. These aquifers are characterised by complex groundwater-flow systems, hence, they are extremely vulnerable and protecting them requires an in-depth understanding of the systems. Poor data accessibility has limited advances in karst research and realistic representation of karst processes in large-scale hydrological studies. In this study, we present World Karst Spring hydrograph (WoKaS) database, a community-wide effort to improve data accessibility. WoKaS is the first global karst springs discharge database with over 400 spring observations collected from articles, hydrological databases and researchers. The dataset’s coverage compares to the global distribution of carbonate rocks with some bias towards the latitudes of more developed countries. WoKaS database will ensure easy access to a large-sample of good quality datasets suitable for a wide range of applications: comparative studies, trend analysis and model evaluation. This database will largely contribute to research advancement in karst hydrology, supports karst groundwater management, and promotes international and interdisciplinary collaborations.

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Continental interfaces, environment

Tunde Olarinoye, Tom Gleeson, Vera Marx, Stefan Seeger, Rouhollah Adinehvand, et al.. Global karst springs hydrograph dataset for research and management of the world’s fastest-flowing groundwater. Scientific Data , 2020, 7 (1), 9 p. ⟨10.1038/s41597-019-0346-5⟩. ⟨insu-02524019⟩