Abstract
Understanding the recharge and runoff processes of the vadose zone is significant for water resource management and utilization in karst mountain areas. Hydrological modeling of the vadose zone in karst caves has provided new methods of evaluating water resources in vadose zones. This paper provides modeling of vadose zone hydrology in a subtropical karst cave. The monitoring was conducted in Yuanyang Cave, Fengshan County, Guangxi Province, Southwest China. By monitoring the water level of a pool recharged by drop water in a cave, a model was established to calculate the natural leakage from the bottom and the infiltrated recharge from the vadose zone above. Combined with meteorological data records, the occurrence of recharge events in the vadose zone was analyzed. The correlation between them was established by multiple linear regression. The results showed that the infiltration ratio of precipitation was 20.88%. Recent rainfall of 4–7 days had shown a greater impact on recharge events than that of 3 days. The effect of evaporation was significant. The regression model in the cave pool was used to understand the hydrological process of the vadose zone, which provided a useful method for water resource management and evaluation in the remote karst mountain area.
Highlights
IntroductionPublisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
The global karst area accounts for 15% of land area, and about a quarter of the global population depends on karst water [1]
During the observation period in Yuanyang Cave, by means of recession curve analysis, the infiltration recharge coefficient was calculated to be 20.88%, which represented the efficiency of precipitation converting to vadose zone runoff in the bare karst mountain area of Southwest China
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The global karst area accounts for 15% of land area, and about a quarter of the global population depends on karst water [1]. The thick vadose zone can infiltrate and store a large amount of water. Due to the heterogeneity of the karst water system, there are karst fissures and conduit networks, which aggravate the difference in permeability of the karst vadose zone, increasing the difficulty of studying the karst water cycle and recharge process [2,3]
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