Articles | Volume 27, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-385-2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-385-2023
Research article
 | 
19 Jan 2023
Research article |  | 19 Jan 2023

Estimating karst groundwater recharge from soil moisture observations – a new method tested at the Swabian Alb, southwest Germany

Romane Berthelin, Tunde Olarinoye, Michael Rinderer, Matías Mudarra, Dominic Demand, Mirjam Scheller, and Andreas Hartmann

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Cited articles

Allocca, V., Manna, F., and De Vita, P.: Estimating annual groundwater recharge coefficient for karst aquifers of the southern Apennines (Italy), Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 18, 803–817, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-18-803-2014, 2014. 
Andreo, B., Vías, J., Durán, J. J., Jiménez, P., López-Geta, J. A., and Carrasco, F.: Methodology for groundwater recharge assessment in carbonate aquifers: Application to pilot sites in southern Spain, Hydrogeol. J., 16, 911–925, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10040-008-0274-5, 2008. 
Aquilina, L., Ladouche, B., and Dörfliger, N.: Recharge processes in karstic systems investigated through the correlation of chemical and isotopic composition of rain and spring-waters, Appl. Geochem., 20, 2189–2206, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeochem.2005.07.011, 2005. 
Baker, A., Berthelin, R., Cuthbert, M. O., Treble, P. C., Hartmann, A., and the KSS Cave Studies Team: Rainfall recharge thresholds in a subtropical climate determined using a regional cave drip water monitoring network, J. Hydrol., 587, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2020.125001, 2020. 
Bargués Tobella, A., Reese, H., Almaw, A., Bayala, J., Malmer, A., Laudon, H., and Ilstedt, U.: The effect of trees on preferential flow and soil infiltrability in an agroforestry parkland in semiarid Burkina Faso, Water Resour. Res., 50, 3342–3354, https://doi.org/10.1002/2013WR015197, 2014. 
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Short summary
Karstic recharge processes have mainly been explored using discharge analysis despite the high influence of the heterogeneous surface on hydrological processes. In this paper, we introduce an event-based method which allows for recharge estimation from soil moisture measurements. The method was tested at a karst catchment in Germany but can be applied to other karst areas with precipitation and soil moisture data available. It will allow for a better characterization of karst recharge processes.