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Isotope Oxygen-18 as Natural Tracer of Water Movement in a Coarse Gravel Unsaturated Zone

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Abstract

The unsaturated zone of an aquifer serves as a water reservoir which discharges water and eventual pollution to the saturated zone for a relatively long period after the cessation of surface input. Effective protection of a water resource requires detailed knowledge of transport mechanisms through the unsaturated zone with regard to its protective function. The article presents the application of isotope methods in the study of groundwater transport processes in the unsaturated zone of Selniška Dobrava coarse gravel aquifer. Emphasis is given to the use of environmental isotopes as natural tracers in the study of groundwater dynamics in the unsaturated zone. The estimation of groundwater flow characteristics was based on experimental work in lysimeter. Based on long-time isotope investigations with the use of lumped parameter models, some water flow parameters (mean residence time, mean matrix flow velocity) in the unsaturated zone were calculated. The results were compared with tracing experiment results in the same lysimeter.

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Acknowledgement

The study presented in the paper was carried out within the project Urban Hydrogeology—The impact of Infrastructures on Groundwater (L-1-6670-0215) and the research programme Groundwater and Geochemistry (P-1-0020-0215) financed by Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology of Republic Slovenia.

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  1. Geological Survey of Slovenia, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Nina Mali & Janko Urbanc

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  1. Nina Mali
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  2. Janko Urbanc
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Correspondence to Nina Mali.

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Mali, N., Urbanc, J. Isotope Oxygen-18 as Natural Tracer of Water Movement in a Coarse Gravel Unsaturated Zone. Water Air Soil Pollut 203, 291–303 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-009-0012-1

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