Development of a sustainable water management for the Su Gologone karst spring (Sardinia, Italy)

The Su Gologone karst spring has been recently investigated to assess how the karst aquifer would react in possible different meteorological conditions. The aim of the project is to develop a flexible and appropriate approach for its karst water exploitation both taking into account the special features of the Supramonte karst landscape and without affecting the quality and quantity of the resource. For this purpose, the spring water level was continuously measured while flow rates were performed monthly. From 1-year monitoring, a high discharge variance and an impulsive behaviour to recharge input was detected indicating the presence of a transmissive drainage network with high hydraulic conductivity. The storage capacity associated to the low-conductive fracture system is still unknown. On the basis of these results, a new setup of the pumping system together with a flexible management of water withdrawal is proposed, allowing the change of the quantity of exploited groundwater (without affecting the resource) depending on the hydro-meteorological conditions.