Cave levels, safe yield and turnover time in karst aquifers

Full text: The presence of cave levels where ground water flow is organized is a typical feature of karstic carbonate aquifers. These cave levels are high conductive paths within a capacitive matrix that differentiates flow velocities, transit times and therefore, the chemical and isotopic composition of groundwater. These two extreme transmissive end points allowed the application of double porosity models to solve flow and transport equations although actually karst aquifers are multiple-porosity systems where flow is rigorously hierarchised. The application of environmental stable and radioactive isotopic models to several Cuban karstic aquifers have shown a well defined stratification of flow varying from three months to 100 years. These so large transit times for 3H suggest that - isotopically - the system is far from steady state conditions and, therefore, the exploitation of the aquifers horizons is strongly restricted by these low renewable resources. While associated with well defined cave systems, transit time of groundwater in karst aquifers is a variable to be considered in the estimation of safe yield and in the engineering measures, as artificial recharge, designed for improve the sustainability of water resources. Depletion of water resources in karst aquifers of the humid tropics could be associated to the exploitation of isotopic 'old' waters not linked with the present hydrologic cycle. (author)