A practical approach for mapping karst groundwater resources : Experience from the SWISSKARST project

In spite of their abundant water resources, in Switzerland as well as in other countries, the location and extent of karst aquifers have not yet been systematically studied and documented – mainly due to the lack of systematic and dedicated approaches for their characterization. In the framework of a project aiming at documenting the karst aquifers in Switzerland (SWISSKARST Project) the pragmatic KARSYS approach has been developed to systematically assess the main characteristics of karst aquifers and karst systems. One part of this project deals with the development of a practical method for mapping 2D hydrogeological karst systems, which is designed to address both scientific and applied issues. A series of maps based on the approach is proposed to describe the main characteristics of karst groundwater systems resulting in a synthesized map which suitably combines all relevant information.