Karstified aquifers are a major source of drinking water. Most standard textbooks on hydrogeology make little mention of the peculiarities of karst groundwater systems in terms of their behaviour and the methods most appropriate to their investigation. The aim of this book is to describe methods that are appropriate for use in karst terrains. These include methods that are basic to all hydrogeological studies, such as hydraulic investigations, hydrochemistry, geophysics, isotope chemistry and modelling, with the emphasis placed on their application to karst systems. Other techniques such as speleological investigation, i.e. the direct exploration of aquifers, are not applicable to non-karstic areas, but are of major significance in karst investigations. Water tracing is a fundamental tool for karst investigations but is less frequently used in non-karst hydrogeology. The various chapters of this book are written by experts in all the different methods. Most of the chapters are multi-authored, and the authors include hydrogeologists experienced in evaluating a variety of karst environments that together provide a balanced view of all the karst methods. This is the first book devoted to describing methods of groundwater investigation appropriate to karstic systems and is intended to be of use to practising hydrogeologists with no special training in karst-oriented methods.

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