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Recharge and spatial distribution of groundwater hydrochemistry in the Geum River basin, South Korea

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Abstract

Groundwater in the Geum River basin is a major agricultural and domestic water resource. In the present study, we collected 128 groundwater samples from four candidate regions (KS, KJ, NS, and BO) for hydrochemical analyses to identify large-scale groundwater distribution. Only 5.5% of samples showed natural background levels of NO3-N and Cl, whereas about 65% of samples reflected the influence of external pollutants according to drinking water standards. Levels of tritium (3H) in groundwater in the BO region indicated rapid recharge over a uniform time span (2.88 ± 0.43 TU). The hydrochemical properties of water samples collected in this study suggest a sustainable water supply in the Geum River basin.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Basic Research Project (21-3411) of the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM), funded by the Ministry of Science and Information and Communications Technology. We thank the other members of the Groundwater Research Center at KIGAM for their help with system setup and operation, data acquisition, and sample analyses. We also thank Dr. Min Han at the Geological Research Center at KIGAM for his considered advice regarding the geology of the study site.

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  1. Geologic Environment Division, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, 124 Gwahang-no, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 34132, Korea

    Hanna Choi, Chung-Mo Lee, Dong Chan Koh & Yoon Yeol Yoon

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  1. Hanna Choi
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  2. Chung-Mo Lee
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Correspondence to Yoon Yeol Yoon.

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Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 4 and 5, Fig. 8.

Table 4 Values of groundwater pH measured at the study sites and concentrations of major ion species (Ca, Mg, Na, K, HCO3, Cl, and SO4) and minor ion species (F, Br, and NO3), and total dissolved solids (TDS) of collected 128 samples. All species expressed as mg/L unit except pH
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Table 5 Water type classifications for each field shown in Fig. 3, according to Lloyd and Heathcoat (1985) [25]
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Fig. 8
figure 8

A simplified sampling points map of Geum River basin, South Korea

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Choi, H., Lee, CM., Koh, D.C. et al. Recharge and spatial distribution of groundwater hydrochemistry in the Geum River basin, South Korea. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 330, 397–412 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-021-07807-8

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