Discharge hydraulic behavior comparison of two karstic springs in Kuhe-Safid anticline, Khuzestan, Iran

Karstic aquifers are important groundwater reservoirs that supply water to many communities in different countries, such as Iran. Therefore, studying the discharge volume and its fluctuations in addition to identify the hydraulic behavior of the karstic springs is very important. This knowledge can be realized by monitoring and analyzing of spring hydrograph in the simplest and effective way, especially by multi-year hydrograph. The main objective of this study is to compare the discharge regimes of Barme-Jamal and Poto karstic springs, formed in Kuhe-Safid anticline, south-east of Khuzestan Province, using multi-year hydrograph analysis. The discharge-stage data have been analyzed for several years to determine the recession coefficients, understand the flow regime in the aquifers and description the hydraulic discharge behavior of each spring. Accordingly, the various scenarios have been investigated based on low and high precipitated water-years. The results show that each of two springs reveals a specific hydraulic behavior based on discharge quantity and recession regimes that indicate its aquifer charactristices. The dominance of diffuse-matrix flow over the conduit flow controls the Barme-Jamal Springs discharge regime and consequently it reveals a normal recession behavior, while for the Poto spring the conduit flow with a threshold is dominant which is a scarce and complex hydraulic behavior