Global karst springs hydrograph dataset for research and management of the world’s fastest-flowing groundwater
Tunde Olarinoye, Tom Gleeson, Vera Marx, Stefan Seeger, Rouhollah Adinehvand, Vincenzo Allocca, Bartolomé Andreo, James Apaéstegui, Christophe Apolit, Bruno Arfib, Augusto S. Auler, Vincent Bailly-Comte, Juan Antonio Barberá, Christelle Batiot‐Guilhe, Timothy Bechtel, Stéphane Binet, Daniel Bittner, Matej Blatnik, Terry Bolger, Pascal Brunet, Jean‐Baptiste Charlier, Zhao Chen, Gabriele Chiogna, Gemma Coxon, Pantaleone De Vita, Joanna Doummar, Jannis Epting, Perrine Fleury, Matthieu Fournier, Nico Goldscheider, John Gunn, Fang Guo, Jean‐Loup Guyot, Nicholas Howden, Peter Huggenberger, Brian B. Hunt, Pierre‐Yves Jeannin, Guanghui Jiang, Greg Jones, Hervé Jourde, Ivo Karmann, Oliver Koit, Jannes Kordilla, David Labat, Bernard Ladouche, Isabella Serena Liso, Zaihua Liu, Jean‐Christophe Maréchal, Nicolas Masséi, Naomi Mazzilli, Matías Mudarra, Mario Parise, Junbing Pu, Nataša Ravbar, Liz Hidalgo Sanchez, Antonio Santo, Martin Sauter, Jean‐Luc Seidel, Vianney Sivelle, Rannveig Øvrevik Skoglund, Zoran Stevanović, Cameron Wood, Stephen R. H. Worthington, Andreas Hartmann
Abstract
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.