Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, TCD

The development of a hydraulic/hydrogeological model of a lowland karst network using analysis of water levels in ephemeral groundwater-fed lakes

This research has used continuous water level measurements five groundwater-fed lakes (or turloughs) in a linked lowland karst network of south Galway in Ireland over several years in order to elucidate the hydrogeological controls and conduit configurations forming the flooded karstic hydraulic system beneath the ground. A model of the karst network has then been developed using a pipe network model with the turloughs represented as ponds. The contribution to the karst network from diffuse flow through the epikarst via the matrix and fracture flow has also been modeled using a combination of an infiltration module and network of permeable pipes. The model has been used to predict the groundwater discharge to the coast via the main spring which had not heretofore been possible to measure, being below the sea level.