Transfer function approach for artificial tracer test interpretation in karstic systems

Summary A karstic formation consists in a three-dimensional hydrological system which involves horizontal and vertical, diphasic or saturated water transfers characterised by a large range of velocity. These subsurface flow processes correspond to various water pathways through fractured, fissured, and underground streams or conduits leading to a nonlinear global behaviour of the system. An efficient way of investigating of a karstic system behaviour consists in the injection of artificial tracer tests at loss points and in careful analysis of the recovery tracer fluxes at one or several outlets of the systems. These injections are also an efficient way of providing hypotheses on characteristic time of contaminant transfer in these type of aquifers. Here, we propose a Laplace-transform transfer function of the Residence Time Distribution function that allows to discriminate between a quick-flow advection-dominated component and a slow-flow advection–dispersion/dominated component in the artificial tracer transfer in the system. We apply this transfer function on five high resolution sampling rate artificial tracer tests operated on the Baget system in the Pyrenees (France) in order to illustrate the advantages and limitations of this approach. We provide then an interpretation of the relationship between tracer test recovery shape and karstic system organisation between inlet and outlet site.