2 The Multidisciplinary Methodologies of Karst Studies and their Practical Applications to Science, Planning, Policy, and Natural Resource Management

Sunday, 25 September 2016
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Room 504

USE OF DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS FUNCTIONS TO DETERMINE FLOWPATHS IN KARST AQUIFERS IN  PORTIONS OF THE INNER BLUEGRASS KARST REGION, KENTUCKY

Paper number: 2-15
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 11:10 AM – 11:25 AM

Authors

Abstract

Groundwater flow in many karst aquifer is thought to concentrate in discrete zones or ‘conduits’ – features such as joints, fractures, or cave passages. When investigating such aquifers, practitioners are often driven to specialized labor- and time- intensive methods, such as dye-tracing studies. Early work in the 1980s in the Inner Bluegrass Karst Region of central Kentucky suggests that geochemical signatures derived from basic water quality parameters commonly included in water quality studies may be sufficient to determine initial flow relationships without the need for dye-tracing. The early work reached over 80% accuracy in classifying groundwater samples into their respective ‘groundwater basin’ determined by dye-tracing.

At a point in time over 20 years later, and with notable land-use change in the Inner Bluegrass Karst Region, follow up samples were collected in a ‘double-blind’ fashion and preliminary results were obtained for this new dataset. These preliminary results from a modern test of this ‘geochemical signature’ statistical approach will be presented along with a detailed explanation of the method. These new results indicate the method holds promise, provided that an adequately sized water quality database exists. Plans for ongoing testing of the method will also be presented.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 48, No. 7

doi: 10.1130/abs/2016AM-282820

© Copyright 2016 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.